What it Feels Like
by Sardixiis
Summary: They had no idea what it was like to have someone they loved go missing. When they'd worked his case, they went at their own pace. Time didn't matter. Not to them. This time he'd show them what it feels like.
1. Prologue

**What it Feels Like**

Prologue

The first thing that registered was how nice the cool concrete felt against her fever hot skin. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew something was wrong with that, but she wasn't dwelling on it. Her head was pounding too. Thankfully the lights were dim so they weren't making it worse.

Still she didn't put together the pieces to realize that something was very wrong. It wasn't until the loud metal clang echoed around the tiny room that she came to full alert. She knew that sound. It was the same one she heard whenever they threw some scumbag into the cage at the precinct.

This wasn't the precinct though, and the person who came tumbling through was not a scumbag. It was Amanda Rollins.

The barred gate snapped shut a moment later and was followed by retreating footsteps. When the door at the top of the steps slammed shut, she could only gape at the other woman. What the hell was going on?


	2. Chap 1 Red Flags

Chapter One – Red Flags

Nick Amaro glanced at his watch and frowned. It was 9am on Wednesday morning, and the squad room seemed unnaturally empty. Typically he and Amanda were racing each other to be the first ones in. At 9am, she was over two hours late. It wasn't like her.

What was even odder was the fact that she wasn't the only one late. His partner was too. Initially Nick had chalked that up to her being sick. From what he'd seen, she hadn't been feeling well the day before and could have gotten a lot worse overnight. Still, she hadn't called to say she wasn't coming in.

Feeling even more uneasy now, he glanced over to the next set of desks. John Munch and Odafin Tutuola were busy working away already. Apparently they didn't see anything out of the ordinary with this morning.

"Either of you heard from Liv or Amanda?"

Both detectives glanced over at him, frowning in thought.

"Not since they went home last night," Fin told him. He seemed to realize that they should both be here, but they weren't. "Cap send 'em out early?"

"And not have you out canvassing the neighborhood already? It would be the end of the world," Munch told his partner dryly.

Fin shot him an annoyed look. Sure, he and John had usually gotten the irritating jobs, like canvassing, but that didn't mean it happened all the time.

"I've got other talents ya know."

"Like kicking down doors and threatening to smack suspects who don't behave?"

Fin was about to snap a retort back when their captain walked in. He glanced at the three of them and a frown settled slowly onto his face.

"Benson and Rollins aren't in yet?"

"Nah, Captain, and I haven't gotten a response from Benson. Whenever I call it goes straight to voicemail," Nick explained.

He'd called a few times in the last half hour. If she wasn't here because she was sick, he wanted to check up on her. Cragen's frown deepened, and he was obviously concerned. Olivia always had her cell on.

"John, call Rollins and see if you can get through. Amaro, you and Fin stop by Olivia's apartment. It's not like her to not answer."

The three detectives nodded and set to work. Cragen watched them for a moment before retreating into his office. He tried to stamp down on his worry, but it wasn't easy. They may not know anything officially yet, but his gut was churning. Something wasn't right.

0~0~0~0

"This is it," Nick said as they stood before apartment 4D.

It had been easy enough to get Olivia's super to let them in, and they'd quickly made their way up to her floor. So far they'd seen no sign of anything out of the ordinary. Fin reached out and knocked solidly on the door. There was no way Olivia wouldn't hear it if she was inside, but Fin yelled to her anyway.

"Hey, Liv! It's Fin! Open up!"

When they received no response, their fear shot up a few notches. Either Olivia wasn't home or she wasn't in a state where she could answer. Neither option was good.

"Try the door," Nick suggested.

"You really think Liv's dumb enough to keep it unlocked?" Fin scoffed. Their female detective was a hell of a lot smarter than that.

He did as he'd been asked though and tried the knob. The door opened right away. That was a red flag right there. Amaro already had his hand on his gun. Fin nodded to him, took up his own weapon, and pushed the door all the way open.

Covering each other, they started into Olivia's apartment. A harsh beeping rang through the rooms. Olivia's alarm clock. Shit. Another red flag. After a few more steps, the worst one of all spread out before them. Blood.

"Is that…?" Nick asked, unable to get out the last few words of the question.

"We clear the rest of the place and call for backup," Fin told him, his voice low and cold.

He hated what he had seen pooled across the floor in Olivia's living room. The puddle reached nearly from Olivia's couch to the end of her kitchen. It was a lot of blood, too much. Most of it was still bright red, but already the edges were fading to a crusty brown. The blood had been there at least a few hours.

Fin and Amaro quickly cleared the rest of the apartment. The only thing out of place was the now silenced alarm clock, the blood, and Olivia's absence. They both returned to the living room. Neither one wanted to look at the massive blood stain on the carpet, but they couldn't seem to keep their eyes off of it either. Fin shook himself out of his horrified daze first.

Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he quickly dialed his captain's number. His fingers were trembling slightly, but he didn't even try to hide it from Amaro. Cragen picked up on the second ring.

"Cap…" Fin had to pause and swallow to clear his throat before he could continue. "We need CSU at Liv's place. She's not here and there's… hell, there's a lot of blood."

"_I'll send everyone,"_ Cragen assured. He didn't like the news any more than his detectives did. _"Stay there and wait for them. John and I are going to check Rollins' place."_

The "just in case" was left hanging. Having one of their own missing and likely injured was bad enough. Adding a second would be hell.

"Hurry, Cap. It's bad."

Cragen didn't need to hear anymore. Not wasting another second, he hung up so he could call CSU. Abductions were a race against time. If they wanted to find Olivia alive, they didn't have even a second to lose. Cragen had already lost one of his best detectives in a good shooting gone horribly wrong. He wasn't going to lose another one too.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: So I was right, this one did turn out longer than Tendrils. I didn't know that was even possible. Even so, for now I'm still only going to upload one chapter a day (minus today because I couldn't just give you that tiny prologue) until I get my next story almost completed. When that happens I might up the uploads to two a day like I did for Tendrils. Hope you're enjoying this so far and are ready for more because there's a lot coming.<p> 


	3. Chap 2 CSU

Chapter Two – CSU

The trip to Rollins' apartment had turned up nothing. No Rollins, but thankfully no blood either. For the second time that day Cragen called CSU to get a squad to one of his own's home. He had just hung up and turned toward the door to check on Munch when he heard his friend growl out a curse.

"Damn it."

The fury in John's eyes seemed to mirror Cragen's. Someone was messing with their family, and whoever that someone was would come to regret it.

"Where the hell are they?" Munch growled as he continued to pace back and forth outside of Rollins' place.

"I don't know, John," Cragen told him between gritted teeth. As the captain, he was trying to stay calm, but the task was nearly impossible.

"I don't mean them!" Munch snapped again as he spun to a stop. "Well, I do want to know where they are too, but I meant CSU."

"I just called. They'll be here soon."

Cragen understood John's frustration. He was feeling it too. Two of their detectives were missing and all they were doing right now was standing around.

"Call your partner and see if CSU is over there yet," Cragen suggested.

John snorted in annoyance but did as he was asked. It wasn't much, but at least he was doing something now.

0~0~0~0

Forensic techs were swarming Olivia's apartment in organized chaos. There was a ton going on, but Fin wasn't the least bit worried about how the scene was being handled. Most of the best techs were there and being directed by the best of the best, the unit captain, Judith Siper.

"Hey, Fin, come look at this," Amaro called from the front door.

Fin came over and found him pointing at the security chain or at least what was left of it. There was a piece hanging from both the door and the wall next to it. The link that should have been holding both ends together was cleanly severed.

"Forced entry," Fin confirmed as he took in the broken chain.

"It looks like Olivia had it on. Whoever took her came prepared to cut it," Amaro agreed.

"Bolt cutters aren't too hard to come by," Fin muttered darkly.

The same cutters could have been the cause of the blood too. Thankfully Fin's phone rang just then, cutting off that train of thought.

"Hey, John," he said wearily.

"_Rollins is missing too. CSU is on their way here."_

"Shit."

"_Yeah. How are they doing over there?"_

"Working. Not much we can do to help."

"_Cragen and I are heading back to the station as soon as they get here. We'll meet you there and get started."_

"We're gonna find this son of a bitch," Fin growled.

"_Like that even needs to be said?"_ Munch asked sarcastically before he hung up.

"Anything?" Amaro asked once Fin had put his phone away.

"Nothin' besides another crime scene."

Nick paled even more. He ran a hand over his face and up through his hair.

"What now?"

"We grab all of the security tapes and head back to the precinct. But first…"

Fin headed over to Siper. He needed to know one thing before they left. While he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to his question, he had to ask it. Not knowing was more painful right now.

"Hey. Is it possible that Liv's still alive considerin'," he waved his hand at the drying pool of blood to finish his sentence.

Siper sighed and glanced from the stain to the tense faces of the two detectives sadly.

"If that's all hers, no. She would have lost too much blood even if whoever did this took her to the hospital right after."

Maybe not knowing had been better. Fin's chest felt like it had closed in on him. Olivia was probably already dead.

"It may not be hers," Nick insisted.

He was grasping at whatever straw he could regardless of how thin it was. Olivia couldn't be gone. Until he had proof, he wasn't going to accept it.

"Possible," Siper agreed. "We won't know for sure until we get it back to the lab for testing. I'll tell you the second we know one way or the other."

Nick nodded. He would hold on to that hope for as long as he could.

"We'll leave you to it," Fin told her as he turned and headed back toward the door again.

"Detectives?" Siper called out. She waited until they turned to look at her before continuing. "Find the bastard who did this."

A dark smile spread across Fin's face.

"I'll make 'im wish he'd never been born."

0~0~0~0

Cragen and Munch were waiting when Amaro and Fin walked in, surveillance tapes from Olivia's apartment in hand.

"What do we know?" Cragen asked in his all business tone.

"Forced entry. Guy came prepared to cut the security chain. CSU found prints on the door, so maybe we'll get lucky."

That was at least one piece of good news. If the prints were in the system they could have the name of a suspect by the end of the day.

"Anything else?" Cragen asked.

"Didn't look like there was a struggle except for the blood. Nothin' knocked over," Fin answered.

"CSU going to let us know when they get an ID on it?"

"Yeah," Fin confirmed. He didn't want to share the one other detail they knew, but Cragen and Munch deserved to know.

"Siper said if that blood was all from one person, there's no way he's alive."

Fin had purposefully said he and not she, but Cragen and Munch knew who he was talking about anyway. Olivia.

"Hey, Cap?" Nick asked softly. "We are going to be allowed to investigate this, right?"

"You let me deal with the chief and One PP. I'm not going to let them take us off this one," Cragen assured.

This case involved two of their own. It was against protocol, but the SVU was going to investigate.

Even if they had to break the rules to do it.


	4. Chap 3 Concrete Walls

Chapter Three – Concrete Walls

"It's almost off," Olivia assured as she continued tugging at the duct tape surrounding her coworker's wrists.

Finally the last of the tape tore free of Amanda's skin. Amanda pulled her arms around in front of her and started rubbing at the red marks on her wrists. Her head hurt too, but there wasn't anything she could really do about that. Besides, Olivia's head had to be hurting worse. She'd seen the blood matted in her friend's hair when Olivia had yanked out the gag their kidnapper had put on Amanda.

"Any idea where we are?" she asked.

It had become obvious right away that there was nothing in the room to help them. Every inch was visible from where she sat, including the steps behind the barred gate caging them in. Olivia would have shaken her head, but she'd come to find that it was best if she kept it still. There was less pain and less darkness creeping in on her that way. Instead she spoke aloud.

"No. The last thing I remember before waking up here was being in my apartment."

She thought she remembered feeling uneasy and waking up from her sleep there too, but she wasn't sure. It all seemed a little bit fuzzy. Probably the head injury.

"Great," Amanda sighed. "I guess he knocked me out and threw me in a trunk. I woke up in there, blindfolded, so all I know is that it was a hell of a bumpy ride at the end."

"Off the main roads then," Olivia mused as she leaned back against the wall.

She was incredibly tired and was having trouble focusing. For Amanda's sake she would try not to show how weak and out of sorts she felt thanks to her cold and the pounding in her head.

"Wish I'd recognized him," Amanda grumbled as she pulled herself to her feet. She checked the gate and wasn't surprised in the least to find it locked. Instead she took another look around and hoped being on her feet would give her the answer she hadn't found sitting down. So far it wasn't working.

"Anything about him stand out?" Olivia asked, falling back on her interviewing skills.

"Nothing. Tall guy. Brown hair that's going gray. Maybe around fifty, but in good shape. No scars or tattoos that I could see, and I didn't catch the eye color."

"Mm."

Even if she had, Olivia wouldn't have had any luck identifying him. There were too many men who could fit that description.

"He just seemed really sad or lost or something, you know? Sunken eyes and really deep frown lines. It was kind of odd."

That did catch Olivia's attention. What kidnapper seemed sad? Angry, worried, lecherous, excited… she could see all of those, but sad? It didn't fit.

Why them? Considering they lived across town from each other, they had to have been specifically targeted. They hadn't been taken for some human trafficking ring. At least she doubted it since they were the only ones here. It didn't seem to be for sex either. Not like a guy couldn't do it without a mattress, but it was far more common to have one, especially when the women were held as captives. That left what? Revenge?

It was certainly possible. Enough people hated them considering how many they put behind bars. Even so, they weren't tied up separately, and there was no sign of any torture equipment.

"Olivia?"

"Huh?"

"You okay? You didn't answer me."

"Oh. Sorry. I was trying to figure out why we were taken."

"Any idea?"

"Revenge seems the most likely, but there are still pieces that don't seem to fit."

Amanda nodded, picking up on some of the same irregularities Olivia had.

"We aren't locked up very well. It would be easy to fight back like this," she confirmed.

"That and we aren't really hurt," Olivia added.

Amanda nodded once again and dropped down next to Olivia.

"You'd think if the guy wanted revenge he'd tell us who he is right? Otherwise how would we know what the revenge is for?" Amanda said.

She didn't appear all that worried, but Olivia could see the nervous energy she was trying to hide. Amanda couldn't sit still for a second. Olivia patted her knee reassuringly and slowly got to her feet.

"Let's check this place inch by inch. Maybe there's something here we can use later."

She wasn't all that hopeful, but it would at least keep them busy.

0~0~0~0

The inch by inch search took a grand total of twenty minutes. At least that was how long they assumed it had taken since neither one had a watch. A small window near the ceiling of their concrete cell and the barred steel door were the only things breaking the monotony of walls.

"We could try to get a peek through the window. Maybe it'll help us figure out where we are," Amanda suggested.

Olivia wasn't so sure. It could help them, maybe, but it was also going to tax her strength. With her fever, that strength was already greatly diminished. Oh well. She'd find a way.

"Think you can reach it if you stand on my back?"

"Probably," Amanda admitted.

Olivia nodded and crouched down on her hands and knees under the window.

"Be quick," she warned.

Amanda was. She'd gotten up as fast as possible, found her balance, and looked out. After only a minute she had both feet back on solid ground again. Olivia sat up, wincing slightly. Her back and knees really hurt, and the rush of blood to her head hadn't helped the headache any.

"Anything?" she asked, ignoring the pain as best she could.

"Nothing but gravel and what looked like a short concrete wall surrounding the place."

In other words, nothing helpful. Great. Olivia leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes with a heavy sigh. All they could do now was wait, and she wasn't very good at waiting.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Attempting to re-upload this since apparently it doesn't want to show up...<p> 


	5. Chap 4 In Search of a Lead

Chapter Four – In Search of a Lead

"What have you got for us?" Cragen asked Adrien Sung as the forensic tech walked into the squad room.

"Identical prints found at both apartments. Unfortunately when I ran them there were no hits. If you can find a suspect, I can match them though," Sung began.

Cragen nodded curtly. It wasn't good news. They had been hoping for more, hoping the prints would close the case right away. Instead, the prints hadn't given them anything extra to work with so they were going to have to handle this case the hard way. Sung hadn't come all the way up here for just that though. There had to be more.

"What else?" Cragen asked.

Sung shifted nervously. There was no easy way to share the news. He glanced between each of the men paying full attention to him before he took a deep breath and just started in.

"We started testing the blood. DNA is still running, so there is no 100% confirmation yet, but we did type it already."

"And?" Fin demanded, ready to jump down Sung's throat if this took much longer.

"It's A positive, the same blood type as Olivia's."

Fin whirled away and slammed his foot into a nearby desk. He started pacing around, hands tucked behind his head. Nick had closed his eyes and kept them that way. His hands were flat on his desk, and it seemed like that was the only thing keeping him standing or lashing out like Fin had. Cragen and John were both visibly shaken as well, but neither seemed ready to physically attack something.

"We don't know for sure," Cragen said. It was more to reassure himself than his detectives though.

Sung nodded sadly. "Not until the DNA comes back. When that happens, you'll know."

"Thank you."

"Wish it could have been better news."

Cragen nodded. He did too.

"It's not your fault. We'll find them."

Sung nodded once more and turned to head back to the lab. There was a lot more to do on this case, and he definitely wasn't giving up on Detective Benson or Rollins.

When Sung had left, Cragen turned to the rest of his unit.

"We all need to get our emotions in check and our heads on straight if we want to find Amanda and Olivia. If you can't do that, tell me now and I'll get someone who can."

Everyone needed to be on the top of their game for this case. They didn't have time for error or break downs. When none of the detectives moved and instead watched him with pure determination, Cragen knew they were ready.

"Fin, I want you back at Olivia's building canvassing the neighbors. Someone must have heard or seen something even if it was in the middle of the night. Nick, you're doing the same thing with Rollins' place."

Both detectives nodded. Neither liked the thought of canvassing, but they knew they could get a potential lead from it. A lead that could quite possibly save Olivia and Amanda. That meant they would do it with no questions asked.

"John, you're staying here and gluing yourself to the TV. Find something in those security tapes that can help us."

"No problem, Captain. My bony ass doesn't even require a lot of glue," Munch replied.

Instead of commenting on Munch's joke, Cragen just continued on.

"I'll contact TARU and see if they can sift through Amanda and Olivia's email just in case there is something there that doesn't seem right. After that I'm going to start pulling old files to see who may still have a big enough grudge to resort to kidnapping."

"This creep isn't in our system, Captain," Amaro pointed out.

"That doesn't rule out family unfortunately. Plus, we have to start somewhere. Right now we have no suspects. Go find me some."

None of them needed any more direction than that.

0~0~0~0

Fin knocked on what felt like his twentieth door. So far he'd gotten a wide range of the same message: No, I didn't see anything. No, I didn't hear anything. Why would I be awake in the middle of the night? In other words, it had all been useless. Maybe now that he'd finally reached Olivia's floor he would get something worthwhile.

"Police, ma'am. Did you see or hear anything unusual last night?"

The woman at the door frowned in thought for a moment.

"Not that I know of. At least nothing that woke me up."

She paused a moment again and her eyes lit up.

"No, there was! An alarm clock! I didn't notice it until maybe seven. Usually we don't have any issues here with people forgetting to turn them off. This time though it lasted so long that I was going to call the super, but then you guys showed up."

That at least corroborated the fact that Olivia had been taken before 6:30 am.

"Was there anything else?" Fin asked.

"No, I'm sorry."

"That's alright. Thanks for your help."

He turned away, a little disappointed. This trip had been a waste of time, but hopefully Amaro was doing better.

0~0~0~0

"I did see something unusual!"

Finally! Nick restrained himself from pouncing on the guy for an answer. Instead he spoke calmly.

"What did you see?"

"These two guys. They were, like, so drunk they could barely walk. These two were like freaking ping pong balls, dude. Just laughing away and bouncing off each other and the walls. Don't usually see anything like that around here. It was pretty awesome."

Nick had to exert all of his willpower not to start banging his head against a wall. It took even more willpower not to punch this moron in the face for wasting his time.

"Anything actually helpful?" he growled.

"Uh, to finding someone? Probably not."

"Great. We're done then," Nick grumbled as he headed toward the next door.

It took him six more before he found someone who had seen something. This time it wasn't drunks either.

"There was this guy here around six. He was carrying a blond woman in his arms. I thought something seemed funny, so I asked him if she was alright. He told me she was fine. They'd partied hard at a friend's apartment last night, and he was going to take her home. I didn't completely believe him, but there wasn't any reason to call the cops or anything."

If the woman had been Amanda, they had a witness! If she was able to describe the man it would be even better.

"The woman, is this her?" Nick asked as he held out a photo of Amanda.

"It certainly could have been. I didn't get a good look at her face, but that's the right hair color and length."

"Did you get a good look at the man?" Nick demanded, unable to stop the hope from filling his voice.

"Well, it was dark and early in the morning…" she hesitated.

"Would you be willing to sit with a sketch artist?"

"I could try, but I don't know how well I would do," she warned Nick worriedly.

Nick sighed in relief. Something was better than nothing even if she couldn't give them very much. Maybe it would be enough for them to use to spot the guy on security footage. Unless one of the others had found something, this woman was their only lead.


	6. Chap 5 Resurrection and a Little Luck

Chapter Five – Resurrection and a Little Luck

It was almost three hours later when Fin returned to the precinct and everyone was back together in the squad room again. Cragen motioned Fin over to join the rest of them.

"Please tell me you got somethin' more than me," Fin grumbled as he stopped beside them.

"Amaro found a witness. She finished with the sketch artist a little while ago. John's working on finding him on our tapes," Cragen explained.

"And the genius that is me found him," Munch told them as he paused the video.

The image showed an older man about six feet tall in a baseball hat and zip up hoodie. His face wasn't very visible, but they could pick out the graying hair. Apparently their suspect knew where the cameras in the building were and was doing a good job of keeping his face mostly hidden from them.

"That ain't much you know," Fin complained.

"Such little faith my friend."

John clicked a different remote and brought up the same man on a tape on another TV. This was an image from Olivia's apartment building. Their suspect was wearing the same clothes, but this time he was also pulling a large suitcase behind him. The time code read 1:26 am, about four and a half hours before he was seen in Amanda's building. Munch eyed Fin over his glasses, a silent look of "see?"

"We need to ID this guy. Compare him with the families in the cases I pulled," Cragen told them.

"Before you do that, I have some news you'll want to hear," Melinda Warner told the group as she strode into the room.

"If it's good news I'm all ears," Cragen told their ME.

"It is. Most of the blood's not Olivia's. It was the same blood type, but it's not her DNA. Didn't match the hair we took from her brush. In general it's pretty easy to type someone's blood. This guy could have found out Liv's and tested anyone else without much trouble to find a match. It wouldn't have been all that hard to do, and it served the purpose of scaring all of us."

The tension in the room eased instantly. Olivia was alive. They still had a chance. Only…

"Most?" Nick asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. There was a smaller pool we tested as well. That was Olivia's," Warner told them.

"Meanin' she's hurt," Fin said.

"Hurt, yes, but there wasn't enough for it to be a serious injury," Warner corrected. They didn't need to be even more worked up than they already were.

"Let's just focus on the fact that she's alive, alright?" Cragen asked as he glanced between his detectives.

"Get her back before that changes," Warner said fiercely. She didn't want to see Liv on her table at the morgue.

"Thank you, Melinda," Cragen told her.

Once she was gone, Cragen turned back to his team again. They had a lot of work to do, and there was no time to waste.

"Alright, what do we know about this guy?"

"He's a bastard," Fin growled.

The captain sighed and resisted the urge to rub his forehead in growing frustration. While he agreed with Fin, the comment wasn't helping them any.

"Let's focus on things that will help us please," Cragen reprimanded.

"He has no criminal record, but this isn't something a first timer does," Nick pointed out. "This was planned."

"Over a long period of time if you ask me," Munch added. "This guy was detailed. Two women, both cops, in one night without showing a good image on security or being stopped by anyone? That's more than your average planning."

"Smart too. Came with bolt cutters, other supplies, and knew Liv's blood type. That couldn't have been luck," Fin grumbled.

"My guess would be that he brought the blood in a canister he hid in that suitcase. Wouldn't look suspicious that way," Munch added.

"Probably got Liv out the same way," Fin concluded since they hadn't seen the man leaving with anything different than what he'd brought in.

"Older, but physically strong. He carried them out," Nick continued. Or at least he'd carried Amanda out and had likely lifted Olivia's dead weight into the suitcase.

"Alright, so what's his motive? Revenge? Is he planning on torture? Rape? Murder? Something else?" Cragen asked.

"Why the hell would he take these two specifically?" Fin snapped. "This is personal."

"Rollins made any friends outside of the department we should talk to?"

Fin, Munch, and Nick all glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Not that I know of," Nick admitted.

"Me neither, Cap. Hasn't told me about anyone at least," Fin confirmed.

"You all start looking at those files," Cragen ordered as he pointed to the foot high stack of possibles on Olivia's desk. "I'll call Alex and Casey to check if Liv's mentioned anything odd to either of them. Let's get to it, and keep me posted."

0~0~0~0

"Pacing isn't going to get us out of here any faster," Olivia grumbled as she watched Amanda make her way back again.

Olivia was still curled up on the ground with her back against the wall. She hadn't given up on the idea of escape, but for now she had to conserve her energy. They couldn't do anything at the moment.

"I'm doing it to stay warm."

Dressed only in a large t-shirt and pajama pants, Amanda was freezing. Their little concrete cell wasn't heated, and the temperature outside wasn't anywhere near warm enough to get rid of the chill. Amanda paused and glanced over at Olivia, who was wearing even less than she was.

"Aren't you cold?" Amanda demanded.

In only a cami and sweat pants, Olivia's bare arms and shoulders were pressed against the cool concrete. She just shrugged at the question.

"No. Not really."

The walls felt really good actually. With any luck it would keep her fever down for a little while longer. In this situation she couldn't afford to have a foggy mind and a high fever would certainly give her that. She needed to be awake and aware. Their lives could depend on whether she could react the right way when she needed to.

"I have no idea how," Amanda grumbled as she sat down beside Olivia and pulled her pants legs over her toes.

"I guess I'm just lucky," Olivia smiled.

Amanda eyed her skeptically but didn't say anything about the irony of her explanation.


	7. Chap 6 The Other Side of the Coin

Chapter Six – The Other Side of the Coin

"How long would you guess we've been down here?"

Olivia's eyes flickered open at the sound of Amanda's voice. She glanced over to find Amanda standing beside the door, watching her. Everything remained quiet and still. Nobody had been down since the time when Amanda had been dumped in. The only change was an increase in the amount of light streaming in through the window.

"I don't know, a few hours. It's probably around two in the afternoon," Olivia guessed.

Which would probably be why Amanda was so hungry. She was used to missing meals because of her job, but usually she at least got breakfast. This time she'd had neither breakfast nor lunch, and there was nothing to keep her mind off that fact.

"He's got to be coming down at some point."

"Not unless he just wants to scare us. Then he could wait forever," Olivia explained.

She was just as furious as Amanda was about being trapped down here without any reason why, but she was still able to think rationally.

"Damn well better not," Amanda snapped.

If he didn't come down they didn't even have a chance of getting out. Olivia chuckled lightly. Amanda certainly had some fire in her. They would find a way out somehow, and if they couldn't then they just needed to hold on long enough for the others to find them.

"How's your head?" Amanda asked, drawing Olivia out of her thoughts.

"Fine," Olivia lied. Truth be told, she had a splitting headache that even closing her eyes to keep out the light didn't help.

Amanda didn't get a chance to argue before the sound of the outer door opening caught her attention. She spun around to face the man coming down the stairs and twined her fingers into the door. Olivia had pushed herself to her feet and taken a few steps forward as well. She watched him steadily, no fear in her eyes.

He fit Amanda's description perfectly. Olivia could see right away why she'd described him as sad and lost. When she looked at his eyes they were dull and expressionless, almost like he had nothing in his life worth caring about. He didn't look at all familiar to her, but if Amanda hadn't recognized him then she should have. He had to have taken them for a reason. They weren't just a random snatch.

"Step back," he ordered.

"And if I don't?" Amanda retaliated.

Without any warning, he slammed the bucket he was holding into the bars. Amanda skittered back in shock, and Olivia moved forward to stand right at Amanda's side. They needed to provide a unified front against him. Attacking now wasn't a good idea since he would be more on guard the first time he came down than later on. For now, they needed to observe.

Their captor slid a key into the padlock on the door and unlocked it. He took a step inside and left the door slightly open.

"Don't even think of trying anything. The top door is locked so you won't get very far if you run," he warned.

Meaning they would need to knock him out completely and take both keys if they tried to get out. It was good information to have, and they both filed it away for later.

"Here, you're going to need this," he told them as he set the bucket on the ground. "I'll empty it for you each day."

Each day. Meaning this was supposed to be a long term arrangement. Olivia winced slightly when she realized what the bucket was for. Apparently it was going to be their toilet. Fantastic.

"Who are you?" Olivia asked.

He shook his head with a wry smile. Of course she wouldn't remember him. When she had worked his family's case, he and his family hadn't mattered much to her. Now, with the case long over, he mattered even less.

"Chris is fine."

"What is it you want from us, Chris?" Olivia questioned gently.

"Technically nothing from you, though you'll gain a better understanding of why time is so important on your cases. You'll see the other side."

Anger flashed across Amanda's face, and she stepped forward menacingly.

"So, what? You're going to beat us?"

The sadness in Chris' eyes increased, though Olivia hadn't thought it possible.

"No," he told them quietly. "I don't want to hurt you. As long as you behave I won't do anything to cause you harm. Nothing at all."

Neither woman was sure if she believed him. He'd captured them and locked them up but didn't intend to hurt them? It didn't make sense.

Chris dug into his sweatshirt pockets and set two bottles of water and two packets of cheese crackers on the ground. Even while he did that he was careful to keep an eye on them, just in case. They behaved though, and he didn't need to worry.

"Those are yours. I hope you have a good night."

With that he turned and left, locking the door securely behind him. The same happened to the door at the top of the steps, and they were alone once again.

Amanda sung around to face Olivia, pure confusion etched onto her face.

"What the hell?"

Olivia felt the same way. This was one of the strangest cases they had ever run into. Too many pieces were missing to make sense of things. It was time to figure out what they had and start trying to put the pieces together.

"What did you get out of what he said?" she asked the younger woman.

It was the only direction Amanda needed to start thinking like a detective again.

"This isn't really about us. At least not directly."

Olivia nodded her agreement. She'd gotten the same thing. They weren't the real targets. It was the SVU as a whole and not individual detectives, though Olivia had a feeling that she had been chosen specifically.

"It's something related to a case we had. Like he's trying to put the entire SVU in its place," she added.

Amanda frowned and shook her head. This guy was seriously delusional.

The thoughtful look on Olivia's face was still there. She wasn't done puzzling out possibilities yet.

"A case that had to involve abductions. Probably one that we handled."

And it didn't go well, she added to herself. She tried to run the various cases through her head, but nothing seemed to fit. Groaning, she rubbed her temples. Her headache had gotten worse, and she was beginning to feel completely miserable. Olivia dropped back down onto the floor and rested her head against the wall.

"Here," Amanda said as she bumped one of the bottles of water against Olivia's arm.

"Thanks," Olivia murmured as she reached out for it. "You're welcome to the crackers. I'm not really hungry."

Considering where they were, Amanda didn't question it.

"We'll save it just in case you're hungry later."

Olivia waved the offer away, knowing she wouldn't be hungry later, but didn't push the issue.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Thanks to all of you who are keeping up with this and letting me know you like it in some way or another. Always enjoy hearing that, especially since I know my SVU stories aren't as popular on here as the Criminal Minds ones. Anyway! I'm pretty sure I'll still be able to get you guys more chapters in the next few days, but I figured I would point out that if I don't it's because I'm out of town for Easter and couldn't manage to get online. Chances are good I'll find a way though, so never fear.<p> 


	8. Chap 7 All in Shifts

Chapter Seven – All in Shifts

It was seven pm and the men of the SVU felt no closer to locating their two missing detectives. They'd spent the entire afternoon looking up DMV photos of suspects' family members from Olivia's and Amanda's files. So far they'd found a small stack of possibles, but the stack of those they hadn't looked at yet was still high. Of those they had gone through, nobody really stood out as a good suspect.

By this point, Cragen had given up on coming out of his office to ask how they were doing. The answer was always the same and only added to the depression and anxiety. Everyone was tense and needed a break.

"Grab something to eat, guys. You need a break."

"You want us to stop, Cap? While they're still out there?" Nick asked incredulously.

"I don't want you to stop. I want you to take a break," he repeated, as if there was a huge difference between Nick's statement and his own.

Cragen knew that forcing his detectives off the case would be next to impossible. They wouldn't give up until Amanda and Olivia were found. He would never want them to either. If they didn't take time to eat and sleep though, they could miss something important. Tensions were already high too. The longer this took the higher they would be and the more tempers would fly. They didn't need that.

"Get some food, and don't make me make it an order," he warned.

Fin's eyes narrowed in irritation, but he didn't argue the point. He wasn't going to win this one. Plus, the sooner he ate the sooner he could get back to work again.

"Nobody is going home tonight. You'll all take turns in the crib," Cragen continued.

None of them had a word of argument on that. They would have all stayed and gotten what sleep they could in the crib anyway. Not that any of them figured they'd be able to sleep. Worry wasn't something that could be turned off when they went to bed. Instead, it would follow each one into their dreams. What was happening to Olivia and Amanda? Were they being tortured? Were they being raped? Were they lying on the ground alone, dying, at that very moment? Or were they already dead?

With work to do the detectives could keep their minds off of the possibilities. When they went to sleep though, that wouldn't be possible. The worst scenarios would flood their minds and allow them no peace.

Almost the same thing was happening now that they'd been forced to take a break.

"What do you think is happening to them?" Amaro asked uneasily.

"My goal right now is to not think about it," Munch replied as he got up from his chair and stretched. He made his way over to Amaro and rested his hand lightly on the younger detective's shoulder.

"I'd suggest you do the same."

Nick nodded, but he wasn't sure how that was going to be possible. He scrubbed at his eyes with his hands and got up as well.

"I'll take the kid and grab Chinese. Anything specific you want, Fin?" John asked.

Fin waved him off, not really caring what they brought back. He'd eat a little of whatever they brought as he continued working.

"Let's go," Munch directed as he and Amaro left the squad room. "We'll grab something real quick and get back here so we can work."

Neither of them spoke from that point on except to order their meals. The silence was finally broken when they were on the way back. Amaro hadn't wanted to dwell on his fears, and he knew that Munch didn't want to think about it either. Even so, the question was eating at Amaro, and he had to voice it.

"How long do you think they can hold out?"

Munch tipped his head down a bit so he was peering over the rims of his glasses. In all honesty, he hadn't been doing a very good job of achieving his goal. Outwardly he appeared relatively calm minus the increased sarcasm.

"Have you ever seen Rollins give in?"

Amaro couldn't help thinking back to the case they worked together where Amanda was the bait in Central Park. She was supposed to stay within sight so he could back her up. Instead she'd gone ahead to take the guy out on her own. Amaro couldn't picture Amanda letting anything get the best of her. He smiled slightly.

"No, and I don't think she ever would," he answered.

"There's your answer then."

"What about Olivia?"

Nick highly doubted his partner would be any more willing to give up than Amanda. In fact, she was probably worse. Still Munch knew her better than he did, so it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"Would you want to deal with a pissed off she-wolf?" John asked skeptically.

"Meaning she'll be fine."

"Meaning, my young friend, I would be worried about the guy who has her. Liv has quite a bite when she wants to use it."

Munch knew that Olivia would do everything in her power to get away from her captor. If that wasn't possible, then she would give the SVU as much time to find her as she could.

0~0~0~0

"You're sure you aren't hungry?" Amanda asked again.

"Amanda, my answer hasn't changed since the last time you asked," Olivia sighed.

Being sick didn't promote a good appetite. She'd managed to eat two of the six crackers, but that was all.

"If you want them, go ahead. I really just want to sleep."

Amanda frowned. She couldn't even consider going to sleep right now, and it wasn't all that late. The light streaming in from outside had died a few hours ago. That meant it was only around nine or maybe ten pm.

"We should probably sleep in shifts," she said instead of questioning Olivia's odd lack of energy.

"Probably. We don't know what to expect yet." Olivia paused before continuing hesitantly. "Do you mind taking first shift?"

Olivia hadn't even needed to ask.

"Of course. If I sleep now I'll be so sore when I wake up it won't even be funny. Go ahead."

Olivia smiled slightly in thanks and closed her eyes to rest.


	9. Chap 8 The Replay Button

Chapter Eight – The Replay Button

On a typical day, 9:30 am was still the beginning of the day for the SVU. They would be catching up on paperwork and waiting for the first new case of the morning to come their way. Once in awhile, if they'd been called out at some ungodly hour of the morning, it wouldn't feel quite so much like the beginning of the day. Today wasn't like either one.

When the clock had ticked over to 9:34, it marked 24 hours since they'd known for sure Olivia was missing. More than that since she'd officially been taken. That was bad enough. They all knew what the chances were for a kidnapping victim after 24 hours, child or adult. What was worse, they were almost back at square one again thanks to the letter.

The letter had changed everything and sent them in a completely different direction from the day before. They'd had to start over entirely.

Around 9:45 a teenage boy had walked into the squad room. He was dirty and quite possibly homeless. Fin had gone to handle it and was the one to receive the letter addressed to the SVU. The letter came in a plain white envelope and contained a white, single sheet cardstock square with a handwritten message.

_You have no idea what it is like to have someone you love_

_go missing. Time didn't matter to you before. Maybe this_

_time you'll realize why it's so important. This time you'll _

_know. Two for two, detectives._

The instant Fin had processed what the message meant, he grabbed the kid's arm in a vice grip and nearly shook him.

"Who gave you this?"

Amaro and Munch looked up from their work at the sound of Fin's raised voice. They had no idea what was going on, but it didn't sound good. If they had known, they would have reacted differently.

"Fin, try not to eat the kid, okay?" John scolded lightly.

"Answer me!" Fin roared, completely ignoring his partner.

"I… I don't know! Just some guy! Said he'd give me forty bucks if I dropped it off."

"When? Where?"

Fin was nearly jumping down the boy's throat to get answers. Worried that his partner might actually hurt the kid, Munch moved forward and placed a calming hand on Fin's arm.

"You'll have to forgive my partner," Munch told their delivery boy. "He didn't get to eat his Wheaties this morning. I'll try to keep him off you, but I'd really suggest answering his questions."

That said, Munch slipped the letter out of Fin's fingers and read it over. That was all he needed to realize Fin had every right to be snapping at this kid. He was starting to regret stopping Fin from tearing the boy a new one. They needed answers, and they needed them yesterday. One way or another they were going to get them, so the kid had best start spilling what he knew.

"Like half an hour ago, maybe more. It took me awhile to walk here, you know?"

Fin swore and turned away. With that much time their suspect would be long gone.

"Would you recognize him?" John asked since it was obvious that Fin was too fed up to continue.

"Yeah, maybe."

"Let's see what you can remember then."

Munch patted the kid on the back and led him over to the desk. He'd handle sharing the sketch of their suspect while Fin brought the letter to the lab. Fingerprints would confirm if it was the same guy. With any luck, the lab would find something else that could help them too.

It didn't take long for their witness to confirm that the man in the sketch was the same one that had given him the money to deliver the envelope. He'd still been wearing a baseball cap, but it wouldn't have mattered much. After the money had been held out, the kid hadn't even bothered taking a good look at the guy. He didn't care who the job was for. Cash was cash. Munch took his information, thanked him grudgingly, and sent him out. The boy hadn't given them much new information, but they at least knew for sure that they were dealing with the same guy. Prints would prove it for sure, but Munch really had no doubts. It could only be Olivia and Amanda's kidnapper.

0~0~0~0

"Lab confirmed the prints are a match to the ones we found in Liv's apartment," Fin growled when everyone was gathered together. "They found DNA too where he licked the envelope, but it won't do us any more good than the prints until after we find him."

"We might be going about this the wrong way," Amaro mused as he once again read through the letter posted on their case board.

"What do you see, Amaro?" Cragen asked.

"Think about his first line. "You have no idea what it's like when someone you love goes missing." I don't think we're looking for the family of a suspect. I think we're looking for the family of a victim."

"He has a point," Munch confirmed. "It's revenge because he thinks we didn't do enough."

Fin barely managed to contain his desire to punch a nice big hole into something. Like a desk or computer or maybe even the whole damn wall. If Amaro was right, which Fin figured he was, they'd wasted an entire day.

Cragen was frowning, but he nodded his head in agreement. They needed to follow this new direction.

"Alright. Forget about the files from yesterday. We need to start fresh. Start looking for any cases where we had two people go missing. We'll pull those and then start crosschecking family photos with our sketch. Start with the cases Benson and Rollins worked, but don't throw out any they didn't. This could be about the whole squad and not just them."

Fin, Munch, and Amaro nodded. They may have been back at the beginning, but there was more to work with now than they'd had before. Maybe this time they'd get closer to the mark.


	10. Chap 9 Foiled Plans

Chapter Nine – Foiled Plans

"You'd think he'd be down here to taunt us or something by this point," Amanda murmured as she followed Olivia's path across the cell.

She wasn't sure how long they'd been doing it, but it had been awhile. Amanda had noticed how often Olivia had been rubbing her arms too. Apparently the cold had finally caught up to the other woman.

Olivia was more than just cold. She was absolutely freezing, yet she felt hot at the same time. Usually when she felt like this the only thing she wanted to do was curl up on the couch under a blanket. Right now she couldn't have either.

"That's not what he wants," Olivia corrected.

"Then what the hell does he want?"

Olivia shook her head. She really didn't know. The explanation Chris had given yesterday hadn't explained much. She didn't have a chance to answer Amanda before they heard the upper door click open.

"I hope you at least slept alright," Chris told them when he reached the barred door.

"You really think that's possible on a concrete floor?" Amanda scoffed angrily.

He ignored her and knelt and set two more bottles of water and two granola bars on the other side of the door. When he stood again he silently met Amanda's eyes.

"Chris? What is it you want from us?" Olivia asked gently.

Amanda's hostile approach hadn't done them any good. Olivia honestly didn't think it would either considering the deep sadness in his eyes. She figured this would be the best way to try and get through.

"What I really want you could never give me," he whispered as he turned his eyes to Olivia's. "So all I want now is to prove a point."

"And what point's that?" she pressed.

He shook his head again and turned away. As he walked up the steps he answered Olivia's question, though only partially.

"It doesn't matter."

"If it didn't matter he wouldn't have kidnapped us," Amanda growled when Chris was gone.

"It matters to him, though I get the feeling that whatever point he wants to make is already too late," Olivia said softly.

"At least he's still feeding us," Amanda muttered as she held Olivia's share of the food and water out to her.

Olivia took it, but her mind was somewhere else. So far they hadn't tried anything. They'd simply behaved and stayed relatively quiet. Neither of them had given him much reason not to trust them. Perhaps…

"Hey, Liv? Has this ever happened before? One of the team being abducted?"

Olivia pushed her original thoughts to the side for a moment and considered Amanda's question.

"Once. Elliot told me about it. A teenager kidnapped a female student and broadcast it to the entire campus to get the SVU on the case. Later on he texted El personally and led him away from the others to meet privately. Once he had Elliot there, he blackmailed him into staying by using the girl."

"What happened? What did he want?"

"All he wanted was for Elliot to look at his little brother's case. To find his little brother."

"The case was cold?"

"Years cold. The detectives who caught it originally followed every lead they had, even unlikely ones, and got nothing."

"And this kid wouldn't let it go," Amanda returned with a shake of her head.

"Would you?" Olivia asked gently. "The family of every victim doesn't want us to fail. They don't understand that when there are no more leads there's very little we can do, so they blame us."

Amanda knew that. It happened all the time. It wasn't fair, but that's just the way things were.

"I think that's what's going on here," Olivia concluded softly.

Of course, knowing what was going on didn't help them all that much. They needed an escape plan. Amanda's thoughts seemed to be going in the same direction.

"Any ideas?"

"At this point, he might not be expecting as much retaliation. I say we hit him next time he comes in," Olivia told her.

Amanda nodded, completely alright with that plan.

"We behave and back away without him needing to ask. Once he's a few feet from the door we'll move in," she continued.

"You take one side, and I'll take the other?"

Olivia nodded in agreement. This was probably the only chance they were going to get. If it didn't work, their captor would be on high alert from that point on. They would be stuck down here until they were rescued or killed.

"You know," Amanda said suddenly. "We should wait until he brings the empty bucket back in… just in case."

Olivia wrinkled her nose. Amanda did have a very good point. If they failed, she would rather the smell be gone for at least a little while.

0~0~0~0

The two women waited patiently for Chris to return with their empty bucket. Once he did they were ready to put their plan into action. When he'd set the bucket down, Amanda launched her attack. She caught his wrist and slipped behind him, easily pulling his arm tight. As she did she drove her heel down hard onto his foot.

Olivia was moving in on his other arm as well, but Amanda's foot stomp hadn't distracted their target. The second Olivia came within range he pulled back his free arm and aimed a punch for her face. Olivia's eyes widened an instant before his knuckles connected. She went down hard.

"Olivia!"

Amanda didn't have time to react before Chris had turned out of her loosened hold and snatched both of her wrists. She struggled against him, but it was no use. He was easily overpowering her despite her self defense training.

"I didn't want to hurt you!" he growled. "You fought back! That's why this happened."

He shoved Amanda away and quickly retreated, slamming and locking the gate behind him. Amanda had launched herself at the gate in one last attempt, but she'd been too late.

"Damn it!"

She slammed her fist into the bars before turning away. Olivia was still down, so she hurried over to her friend's side. The skin around Olivia's eye and cheekbone was already red and swollen. She'd have a nice black eye later.

"Olivia?" Amanda asked as she gently brushed Liv's damp hair away from her face. Olivia was burning up beneath her touch. When Amanda looked closely she could see that Olivia was breathing a bit harder than normal and beads of sweat lined her forehead.

Olivia groaned and slowly opened her eyes. When her vision finally cleared she found a furious Amanda staring down at her.

"You've got a fever! Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

There was no way her fever could have just cropped up in one day. Olivia had to have had it before, yet she hadn't mentioned anything. It made Amanda nearly livid. They were trapped down here in a tiny concrete cage. Whatever was going on with Olivia, Amanda needed to know.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not. You're burning up. Look at you, you're covered in sweat."

Olivia slowly pushed herself into a sitting position despite the ringing in her head. She swayed a bit, and Amanda had to rest a steady hand on her side to keep her upright.

"You should have said something."

"I'm alright, Amanda, okay? Just drop it."

Amanda wasn't about to just drop it. She glared at Olivia with steely eyes.

"Look, I know you don't like to share anything, but right now that's not going to work. We're in a bad spot and I need to know what's going on."

Olivia winced slightly. She knew what Amanda said was true, but it didn't change the fact that she wouldn't willingly admit weakness. It just wasn't in her.

"I'll be alright, really," she assured Amanda as she met her eyes firmly. "I will."


	11. Chap 10 Chipping Away

Chapter Ten – Chipping Away

By three in the afternoon Cragen regrouped everyone to go over what they had found. Fin, Munch, and Amaro had been working nonstop since the letter had arrived. No other cases were as important, so other detectives had handled anything new coming in and any high priority cases the unit already had.

"How many look good?"

"I went back ten years just to be safe," Munch began. "So far I have nearly twenty possible files that fit an abduction of only two women. Those are just the ones Liv handled."

"I've got over that for her," Fin grumbled. "Twenty five and I've only made it through three years."

Cragen winced. That had them at almost fifty already, and they were nowhere near done with the files. In fact, he was pretty sure that Amaro would bump them over with the ones he had found.

"I have one for Rollins and another six for Olivia recently," Nick said as he added his own files to the growing stack.

"We got to find a way to narrow this down. It's like lookin' for a needle in a haystack, and we don't have time for that," Fin told Cragen.

Cragen had to agree. Interviewing all of these families would take them days if not weeks. That was time they just didn't have. Fin, Munch, and Amaro looked at him expectantly, waiting to hear what he wanted them to do.

"See if you can narrow it down to people who are still in the city. Chances are he still lives here. After that, we'll see if we can shrink the pile more based on what happened to the women, and if they were related or taken together."

"He didn't like the outcome of his case so he takes it out on two other women. Makes perfect sense. And you wonder why I have so little faith in the human race," Munch said bitterly.

"Focus, John. We all have work to do," Cragen directed.

Amaro didn't need more incentive. He was already digging through the files again. Fin was about to start again too when Munch spoke up once more.

"You want some too, Captain?" he asked as he held up his own stack of files.

"I'd love to, but I have my own work to do."

"As in finding our two missing detectives work?"

"Yes, John, work that will help us find them. I put out a BOLO yesterday, so I'm calling other precincts to see if they have anything," he explained.

That and he was calling all hospitals and morgues in the area. It was a long shot, but Olivia or Amanda could have been brought in. Cragen was going to leave no stone unturned in this.

"Right," John said sheepishly as he ducked his head down to work again. He'd never doubted his captain, but his frustration over the case had gotten the better of him.

Cragen seemed to understand that and had simply retreated to his office without a word of reprimand. When Fin saw him pick up the phone to start his calls again, he whirled on his partner.

"Shit, Munch, could you have been more insensitive? He's just as worried as we are."

Munch took off his glasses and set them aside so he could rub his eyes. He suddenly looked very tired and very defeated. Fin sighed and let up, taking pity on his partner. He stood and headed for their coffee machine, grabbing Munch's mug and his own on the way.

"I'm goin' to make some more coffee. You want some, Amaro?"

Amaro simply held his empty mug up and mumbled thanks. He hadn't even bothered to look up from his work.

0~0~0~0

"You guys want to add any names to this list of people we should interview?" Amaro asked.

"I got two so far, but I'm goin' to hit them up now. It's not too late yet," Fin told him as he stood up and grabbed his coat.

"You want company?" Munch asked.

"Nah. I got this, and we have too many others to look at."

"Take him," Cragen ordered.

Fin looked up in surprise. He hadn't expected the captain to argue this with him. His reasoning was sound. They had too much to do still to have two detectives running one interview.

"I want to play it safe. We're all on a short fuse," Cragen explained.

Cragen had a point, and Fin sighed. The interviews could immediately go to shit if he lost his temper. Worse yet, he could end up getting himself into a load of trouble with the department too if it was bad enough. Might as well take Munch with him even if it took one more person off of the stack of files they still had to go through.

"Alright. You coverin' for us while we're gone?"

"Just go. Amaro and I will keep sifting."

Amaro held out the list he'd started. There was a file to go with each name and address on it.

"Just in case you still have time."

"Thanks. Interviewing likely innocent people who were once victims of a crime and asking for an alibi is the best part of my day," Munch grumbled as he grabbed the case files and followed Fin out the door.

0~0~0~0

"Thanks for your time, sir," Munch told their final suspect before he and Fin headed toward the door.

They headed down the driveway, and Fin pulled open the car door and dropped into the seat. He couldn't quite suppress the yawn that slipped out.

"Well, that's five people down," Munch muttered as he gathered the files off of his seat and sat down.

It was only 8pm, but they couldn't do any more interviews now. They would have to wait until tomorrow.

"Barely even made a dent. We're gonna need more clues or this is gonna take way too long," Fin grumbled.

Munch couldn't argue with that. They had a list a mile long, and a clock that was running out. What he wouldn't give for a drink right about now. He couldn't afford it though. Not until Amanda and Olivia were found.

"Let's go," he sighed.


	12. Chap 11 Too Late

Chapter Eleven – Too Late

The start of day three. It was halfway over. Chris gently fingered the photograph of his family sitting in front of him. He smiled slightly before turning his attention to the small stack of white envelopes on the table beside him. They were the same shape and color as the letter the SVU had received the day before. The only thing that was different was the message inside.

Each one had been written long before Chris had set out to kidnap Olivia. It had taken days of thought and countless drafts to get the right wording for each. All of them had been re-read time and time again until he was sure they were perfect. A new detail was shared each time, but nothing much was given away. He wasn't going to make it that easy for them. They needed to really feel what it was like to spend days worrying and waiting.

Picking up the top letter, he headed for the door. It would take a few hours to get into the city and find someone to bring the letter into the station. Of course he wasn't worried about finding someone. There were a large variety of people who were willing to assist him for a little extra pocket money. He'd found that out quickly enough. Once he'd sent the person off to the SVU, it would bring the time to about the same as the day before. Perfect.

0~0~0~0

It was only 9am and already the detectives felt like it was 9pm or later. They'd each spent some time in the crib again, but even together they had barely gotten nine hours. Each and every one of them was running on fumes.

"I can barely read these files anymore. I look at it for ages, but I'm too tired to make sense of this," Amaro moaned as he rubbed his burning eyes.

"I hear ya," Fin agreed.

Cragen had finally broken down and allowed the detectives to conduct interviews alone. Munch had been out for an hour already while Fin worked on adding work addresses to their lists. It was a never ending list since Amaro was adding names from more potential case files.

"Er… excuse me."

Fin and Amaro glanced up at the new voice. If it was a new case, they would direct it to one of the other detectives who had taken over for them.

"I'm supposed to give this to some special unit or something," he said as he held up a thin white envelope.

The blood drained from Amaro's face, and he couldn't move. Fin snatched the envelope from the man and tore it open. The handwriting was the same. It was their guy.

"Amaro? Can you get his information?"

When Amaro didn't respond at first Fin called out to him again.

"Y-yeah. Sorry."

He led their new witness away, knocking on Cragen's door as he went. Cragen popped his head out a moment later to see Amaro nod toward Fin. The message got through loud and clear.

"Another one?" he asked as he joined Fin.

Fin slammed a tack into the letter and their case board with a little more force than necessary.

"Yeah. I want this guy, Cap."

"I know. I do too."

He turned toward the board and read the new letter.

_Have you seen the truth? That you could_

_have done more? When it mattered to me, time _

_ran out. Now that it matters to you, will you run _

_out of time too?_

Cragen read it through one more time before turning to Fin. He thought it gave them another clue to narrow down their list, but he wanted to know if Fin had picked up on the same thing.

"What do you see in this?"

"Ran out of time makes it sound like it was too late when we found them," Fin answered.

Usually when they talked about a victim who it was too late for, they weren't talking about just being raped. They usually found those victims dead.

"Like they were killed," Cragen nodded.

"Meaning we can narrow down the list to victims that died," Fin finished as he headed back over to the piles.

With any luck that would cut their list in half. Maybe forty names to go through instead of near a hundred.

"Let's get started then."

Having something new to work with gave the detectives a much needed second wind. Already they were making good headway through their potential suspect pool.

Cragen and Fin had been working for about half an hour when Amaro came out of the interview rooms with their witness, who headed toward the door.

"Come join us," Cragen called out.

"Find something?" Nick asked.

"New way to shorten our list," Fin explained. "We're pulling only the files where our victims died."

Amaro took a moment to look over the note, nodded his agreement with Fin's plan, and came over to join them.

"Anyone call Munch and let him know?" he asked as he pulled a file toward him.

"He's hitting the names that fit our new criteria, and then he's going to head back here," Cragen explained.

"By that point we'll know who to hit next," Fin said.

"Hopefully the right one too," Amaro muttered.

They needed a little bit of luck on their side right about now. Each day they'd gotten a new lead which brought their suspect list down at least a little bit, but they couldn't just keep waiting. The letter had mentioned running out of time. By the next morning when a new letter came it could already be too late.

_Will your time run out too?_

Amaro's head snapped up as those words from the letter came back to him.

"Time ran out… Do you think he's going to kill them if we don't make it by whatever his deadline is?" Nick asked a bit frantically.

"I don't know, Nick. I honestly don't know," Cragen told him sadly. "But I really hope not."

He really hoped they wouldn't have any need to find out either.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Here's a second chapter for you today in return for the fact that I won't be around tomorrow to upload one. Enjoy. We're getting close to halfway through now.<p> 


	13. Chap 12 Hard Decisions

Chapter Twelve – Hard Decisions

While Cragen, Fin, and Amaro were receiving the second letter, Amanda and Olivia were sleeping. They had been planning on sleeping in shifts again, but when Amanda's turn awake had come to an end, she didn't wake Olivia. The other detective's illness seemed to have gotten worse, and Amanda hadn't had the heart to force her out of sleep. Olivia needed rest, so Amanda had continued to stay awake and keep watch. Eventually she hadn't been able to keep her eyes open and had fallen asleep as well.

She woke after a few hours feeling sore and not very rested. That was probably the best she was going to get considering where she was sleeping. She rolled into a sitting position and rubbed at her eyes in an attempt to fully wake up. The two empty water bottles remained where they'd left them, as did Olivia's unopened granola bar and apple from the day before. Amanda couldn't blame Olivia for not eating anything, but at least she was drinking the water they had.

Speaking of Olivia…

Amanda glanced over to where her friend was still asleep. She could actually see Olivia shivering from where she sat. Shifting closer, she found that Olivia was covered in sweat. She was so covered, in fact, that her shirt was glued to her skin. When Amanda pressed her hand to Olivia's forehead she could see why too. Her fever was blazing.

"Dang it."

Amanda really wished she could do something to help Olivia, but there wasn't much she could actually do. This was no place to be sick. Chances were she was going to get sicker too. Amanda was going to have to try to convince Chris to give her something to help Olivia.

"I'm going to get you out of this," Amanda soothed as she stroked back Olivia's damp hair. Too bad she had absolutely no idea how.

A short time later she actually got the chance to do something. Chris was coming down to bring them breakfast.

"I brought you some bagels and cream cheese," he told her. It was a big step up from their earlier meals.

Amanda swallowed hard and braced herself for what she had to do. Sucking up and being kind was her only chance at helping Olivia.

"Chris," she began as she took half a step forward, careful that it wouldn't make him think she was going to try something. "Olivia's really sick. You can't just leave her like this. Please."

His eyes shifted to Olivia's prone figure. Her face was pale which only made the red splotches of color on her cheeks seem worse. There was no doubt in his mind that she was ill.

"I'll bring you down a blanket, but that's all I can do," he told Amanda.

That wasn't good enough. They should have had a blanket a long time ago. Now the only thing it could really do was keep Olivia a bit more comfortable.

"That's not going to be enough. She needs help or she's going to get worse," Amanda insisted.

Chris just shook his head and set the food on the ground. With that he turned away and locked the gate behind him. Amanda was about to give him a real piece of her mind when he turned back to look at her. Her eyebrows lifted in mild surprise, and she held her tongue.

"I'll see what I can do."

He seemed completely sincere. Amanda couldn't manage to formulate a reply before he headed up the steps and out the door. She had no idea if what she had tried had worked or not. Growling in frustration she grabbed the bars of the gate and gave them a solid shake. She knew it was silly, but her nerves were frayed, and she didn't really care how useless the action was.

"Amanda?"

The noise had dragged Olivia back into consciousness. She was struggling to push herself into a sitting position, but her trembling arms weren't making it easy.

"Dang it. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up."

Amanda reached Olivia just as her friend sat up. Olivia seemed to be fighting to keep her head up. The bruise on her face had darkened to a deep purple overnight, and the swelling had increased to the point where Olivia couldn't even open her eye. It didn't get by Amanda for a second.

"Maybe you should lie back down," Amanda suggested.

"I'm alright."

"Then at least have something to drink and see if you can eat a little."

Amanda got up to gather the water and bagels. Plain bagels were pretty bland, so she was hopeful that Olivia would agree to try some. As she returned to Olivia's side she continued.

"He brought us bagels. You should be able to get a little bit down."

"I'm not hungry."

It was the same tired argument she'd been using since they'd been taken. Amanda had had enough of it.

"You need to eat," she insisted.

Olivia's eyes flicked up to meet Amanda's. The fire in them was clear despite the dullness the fever had brought on. Amanda simply met the look evenly. This time she wasn't giving in.

"I don't want anything. Let it be."

"No. You haven't eaten much since we got here, and you need to keep up your strength."

She held a piece she'd broken off the bagel out to Olivia. Being the newer detective, Amanda usually ceded authority to her more experienced coworker. In any other situation, she wouldn't have dared to challenge her over food. That was Olivia's business, and Amanda had no place in it. This was different though. They were trapped, and Olivia was sick. Amanda was willing to risk the other detective's wrath if it meant preventing her from getting worse.

Olivia heard the determination in Amanda's voice and sighed heavily. She didn't have the strength to fight this battle. Instead of fighting it, she took the bottle of water and piece of bagel from Amanda. Seeing that Amanda had no intention of leaving her be until she was sure Olivia would eat, Liv broke a tiny bit off of her piece of bagel and popped it into her mouth. Amanda was content with that and moved to give Olivia some space to herself. After she'd eaten her own breakfast Amanda would make sure Olivia had eaten more than the one bite. For now though, she'd leave her friend alone.


	14. Chap 13 Rising Tensions

Chapter Thirteen – Rising Tensions

"So you drag me all the way back in here only to send me back out again?" Munch complained. "What am I? A tennis ball?"

"Shut your trap and get yourself some coffee," Fin countered.

Munch had only been back at the station for a few minutes before he was told that he was going out interviewing again. The complaining had started a moment later and not let up.

"You're all going, John," Cragen told him as he looked up from the papers spread across Amaro's desk.

They'd been working on splitting up their list of 43 possible suspects into three piles based on location. Each detective would take one list and start interviewing. While they were gone, Cragen would be going over the building surveillance again to see if they'd missed any clues as well as planning a press conference to release the picture of their suspect and anything they knew about him. It was a risk, but he didn't believe this man would hurt Olivia or Amanda in response. He wanted them to be found. At least Cragen hoped his evaluation of the letters which had led him to that conclusion was right.

"Why can't we have the unis go and pick them up? It would save us a lot of time," Munch asked.

"They're family of dead vics, man. You really think they're goin' to want to come in? 'Specially as suspects?" Fin pointed out.

John saw the point right away. Most of the men wouldn't come in willingly. If they didn't, the detectives would just have to go to them and try for a second time to talk to them. By that point they'd be on guard and a lot more hostile. Even though he understood, John was going to argue the point. It wouldn't be like him if he didn't.

"So? It would be worth a shot, and my feet would be very appreciative."

"Your feet will be just as appreciative when you put your ass on the driver's seat," Fin grumbled.

Cragen cut the bickering short when Amaro placed the last name on the appropriate list.

"Here. Take these and get started. Remember, a lot of these guys aren't going to want to talk to you, and we have no way to make them. Which means you're going to have to turn on the charm. I'm sure you can all do that, right, John?"

The captain eyed his oldest detective as he finished. Munch reached out and plucked the shortest list from Cragen's hand.

"Of course, Captain."

"That's what I thought."

Cragen gave the other two lists to Fin and Amaro before taking a moment to look his detectives over. They appeared haggard and beat down. The cracks in their control were barely holding together. Any one of them could explode at any second. Cragen wasn't feeling much better, but he knew that losing his temper wouldn't help his missing detectives. The three men before him probably knew the same thing, but it wouldn't hurt them to hear it again.

"I know we're all tired and on edge, but using excessive force on one of these guys won't help us find Olivia and Amanda. It'll just get you in trouble, which means we have one less guy working the case. Keep that in mind."

He met each of their eyes individually, waiting to see the nod of understanding before moving on. They were already on thin ice with IAB considering the fact that it was against protocol for them to be working this case. The last thing they needed was to give the rat squad more ammo to can all of them.

0~0~0~0

"Look, sir, it's not that I want to be accusing you of anything, but two detectives are missing and you fit the possible suspects. I need to know where you were late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning," Amaro explained again.

He was really trying to keep his cool, but the past four interviews had run his reserves of calm almost dry. To make matters worse, Aaron Race, father of two young girls who had gone missing and been found dead years later, was really trying Nick's patience.

"I don't give a damn who's missing! You have no right to come waltzing in here after three years and bring up the past."

"I realize that, but…"

Race cut him off, his face plastered with rage.

"Get out!"

Amaro's jaw set, and he prepared himself to catch the door he was pretty sure was going to come swinging shut in his face any second now. As furious as Race was, and as reasonable as that fury may be, Amaro didn't really care. He needed an answer. If a little more force was required to get it, he'd do what he had to do. So much for calm.

"I will when you answer my question."

"Go to hell."

And there came the door. Nick's arm shot out, and he caught it before it could close all the way. He glared at Race icily.

"Let me make this clear. I need to know where you were that night. Only when I have that answer will I leave. Got me?"

"I was here, alone. Then I went to work at 6:30 the next morning. It's an hour commute. Good enough?" he hissed.

"Yes. Thank you," Amaro answered as he let go of the door and turned away. All it would take was one or two stops to the other workers' offices on his way out the door and Nick could confirm Race's alibi. If it checked out, Race was one more off the list.

Three suspects removed, one without a solid alibi, and eleven more to interview. Considering it was almost three, he seriously doubted he'd get done before the others went home. That meant location changes and longer drives, plus more phone calls to confirm alibis instead of simply walking down the hallway. At the rate he was going, someone was going to get punched in the face really soon.


	15. Chap 14 The Why

Chapter Fourteen – The Why

"Try to get some sleep, okay?" Amanda encouraged as she gently tucked the blanket tighter around Olivia's trembling shoulders.

"Okay," Olivia whispered back.

Her eyes fluttered closed a second later. She was far too exhausted to argue, and even if she had tried, she wouldn't have won. The fight to prove she was alright had left her. Reality was she wasn't anywhere near alright, and she hated it. This inability to handle things herself wasn't her. She hated people seeing her as weak, and she absolutely despised people taking care of her. Amanda had found that out the hard way. In fact, if she hadn't said just the right thing (that if Olivia didn't rest now she wouldn't have the strength to fight when she needed it), Olivia would have still been arguing with her.

Amanda dipped the washcloth in a small bucket of cold water, wrung it out, and placed it gently on Olivia's forehead. Chris had returned with the blanket, washcloth, and water about half an hour ago. He hadn't stayed long, just dropped it off and left. It was more than Amanda had expected, and even though none of it could really help Olivia much, Amanda was grateful for the supplies.

Chances were Chris would be coming back pretty soon with their dinner. Amanda couldn't be completely sure, but the light in the room seemed to be at around the same amount it usually was when he came at night. Since there wasn't an actual light in the cell, Amanda and Olivia had been using the natural light streaming in through the lone window as a makeshift clock.

Amanda sighed and leaned back, stuck to wait for awhile. As she did, she allowed her thoughts to drift back to the rest of the SVU. Were they close to finding her and Olivia yet? Did they even have somewhere to start? She had absolutely no idea.

0~0~0~0

Hours later, Amanda was getting really sick of the silence. She would have given just about anything right then for a shower too. The click of the top door drew her attention, and she pushed herself to her feet. There was no way she was going to let this guy thing he'd beaten her.

"I brought you some dinner and some aspirin for her. Not sure if it will help, but…"

He shrugged and started setting the items on the floor through the bars. The aspirin, two bottles of water, and more crackers. If Amanda had thought Olivia had any ability to run right then, she would have tried grappling with Chris through the bars. Even if she somehow managed to knock him out, get the key, and unlock the door from the inside, Amanda knew it wouldn't do much good. Olivia wouldn't be strong enough to make it very far, and as far as Amanda could tell, they were out in the middle of nowhere.

She was about to consider it anyway when Chris sent one more thing through the bars. A can of beer. Amanda eyed it in confusion.

"I figured you might like some," Chris explained.

"What the hell kind of kidnapper are you?" Amanda asked as she lifted her eyes to meet his.

"The kind that doesn't have much left in this world to care about, I guess."

She took the can and looked it over carefully. So far Chris hadn't done anything to hurt them or try to poison them. That didn't mean she was going to trust that he wouldn't. Once she'd fully inspected the can and found everything to be in order, she popped the tab. As long as she drank it slowly it wouldn't affect her at all. Besides, if she could get him drinking too it would provide an opportunity for her to get the upper hand.

"Where's yours?" she asked nonchalantly.

"I don't drink. Not since this whole thing began."

Well, that was certainly an easy way to get onto the subject of why he was doing this. Amanda hadn't even had to try.

"When did this all begin?"

"Two years ago," he answered.

He turned away and lightly tapped his finger against the wall, thinking. Finally Chris looked back at her.

"No. It started earlier than that. Over five years ago. The day they were taken."

Now they were getting somewhere. Amanda sat down right next to the bars and watched him. Hopefully he would follow her lead.

"Who?"

"Beth and Lindsay. They were abducted October 9th. I'll never forget that day. It was the last day I saw them. You guys looked for them, or said you did. It didn't matter though. You cops didn't really give a shit, and on October 15th my wife and little girl were found dead. They'd been raped and tortured."

Chris' breath caught and a tear trickled down his cheek. He took a few shuddering breaths, trying to hold back sobs, and slid against the wall down to the floor.

"Lindsay was thirteen. Just a little girl still. And they… they… did those things to her."

If he hadn't kidnapped her, Amanda would have wanted to reach out and rub his back. This man had lost everything in a horrific way. As sorry for him as she felt, she couldn't condone what he was doing now.

"Chris, the man who did that was a monster, and he deserves every second of punishment he gets. What he did was wrong, but what you're doing is wrong too. You have to let us go," Amanda insisted in a calm and steady voice.

Chris' eyes flashed from pained to furious. He rounded on Amanda, glaring daggers at her.

"You all deserve to know what it's like. The SVU and her especially," he said as he thrust a finger toward the sleeping Olivia. "That's why I decided to take her, Detective Olivia Benson."

"Chris, neither of us can fix what happened, and I'm sorry about that. I really am. You need to understand though. What happened wasn't Detective Benson's fault."

He laughed bitterly and shook his head. She was the one who didn't understand. Detective Benson had said she would do everything she could to help find them, and she'd lied. If she had done everything, Beth and Lindsay would still be alive.

"It was her fault. She worked the case. She let this happened, and because of that you're both here now."


	16. Chap 15 The How

Chapter Fifteen – The How

Amanda just stared at him incredulously. He was delusional. The grief and misplaced guilt had consumed him so much that he wasn't thinking clearly.

"I'm a good guy. Or at least I was," Chris continued. "For three years after their deaths I tried to deal with what happened. I tried to move on again, to get back on track, but I couldn't. How could I when the only things that made my life bright were gone?"

He shook his head and stared ahead of him at the wall. Amanda didn't dare to interrupt him. He was so lost in telling the story that he seemed to have momentarily forgotten she was there.

"I started drinking, didn't want to leave the house, couldn't put effort into anything. Eventually I lost my job, but I didn't care. Three years like that before I finally realized what I should be doing. There was really only one thing I could do. Show the police the truth they always denied."

At this Chris returned his attention to Amanda. He met her eyes and made sure she would hear the next part.

"That you could have done more."

Did he somehow think that doing this would make things right? It wouldn't. Nothing could bring his family back, and he had to understand that. Amanda opened her mouth to protest, to tell him that they never took cases lightly, but sometimes they just couldn't win. Chris didn't even give her the chance. He just started talking again.

"It was the only thing that mattered. What did I care if I ended up going to jail? As long as I showed you cops, I'd be content. Started planning everything the next day. It didn't take long for the main idea to form, and I just went from there. The specific details of what I was going to do slowly came together. After they did, I was finally able to work out how to do it, what skills I would need, and who I could get to unknowingly help me."

"How to take us?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, but it wasn't "us" at first. It was just her. You showed up after I had the entire thing worked out. It couldn't have been a luckier opportunity. With you, I could make this completely equal. Two taken for two lost."

Amanda stared at him, flabbergasted. No wonder she hadn't recognized him. He didn't have a beef with her at all. She'd just been a happy coincidence to make his game perfect.

"I had to wait another half year to put my plan into action. It takes time to really study someone, to learn all about them. When could I expect you home? Where was home? What kind of security did the building have? Your apartment have? How was I going to get in? How would I subdue you? How would I manage not to be seen? What if I was? The list goes on and on."

All this time she and Olivia had been being stalked in a way, and they hadn't known it. Their time had been counting down for months, even years. If they had noticed, they could have stopped this before it really started. It made Amanda feel sick.

"A little over two years of preparations," Chris continued. "I wasn't willing to put my plan into action until I was confident I could pull it off without a hitch. Of course the fact that I needed to get a part time job to help pay for everything ate up some of my preparation time, but it all worked out."

It all worked out? Hell no it wasn't going to just all work out.

"They're going to find us," Amanda growled vehemently.

"Oh, I know. I want them to. They have three more days to pull it off too. There's no way they won't find you by then."

He gave Amanda a light smile, almost as if he was sharing a tiny secret with her.

"Besides, I think by now they get the point. A few more days will drive it home."

With that he stood and headed for the steps, calling down to her as he went.

"Enjoy your beer, Amanda, and don't worry. It's almost over."

Amanda couldn't help feeling a dull finality to the sound of the door closing above her. Three more days. She almost didn't want to know what would happen if Cragen and the others didn't find them before that. Chris had said he wanted the police to find them which meant this could end one of two ways. Either they were simply released and free to walk away, or they would follow Beth and Lindsay's path to its final conclusion. Either way, the ordeal was halfway over. Amanda just hoped it wouldn't end in caskets and headstones. She didn't need to wake Olivia to know the other detective would feel the same.

Amanda groaned and twined her fingers into her greasy hair. With three days, two heads put together, and two bodies capable of fighting back, she and Olivia hadn't managed to get out. Now she had the same amount of time, but one less head and capable body.

"There has to be something," Amanda mumbled to herself.

But she couldn't think of anything. Chris had been smart about what he'd given them. No knife with the cream cheese and no glass bottle of beer. Both could have been used as a weapon.

If she wanted to get herself and Olivia out, she was going to need to do the impossible.

She had to beat up a guy twice her size to escape. That wasn't particularly impossible given the right tools. Too bad she didn't have anywhere near the right tools or even remotely usable tools. It would have helped if she had a little more to work with than a few plastic wrappers and bottles, a beer can, and a bucket. Amanda would have been okay with a little bit less of a challenge. The impossible didn't need to be quite this impossible.

They were so screwed.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Since there are a lot of anonymous reviewers so far for this story, I figured I would thank you all this way since I can't do it through pm. I'm glad you're all enjoying it and spend the time to review. To those of you non-anonymous reviewers, you probably already know I love you since you've likely gotten something from me. If you're one of those people who has been reviewing almost every chapter, I have no idea how you do it, and I can't thank you enough. Stay tuned!<p> 


	17. Chap 16 Narrow the Numbers

Chapter Sixteen – Narrow the Numbers

Amaro stumbled back into the squad room at 8:30, completely exhausted from spending the entire day interviewing suspects. Not like very many of the people he'd talked to could even vaguely count as suspects.

Of the eleven he'd had left at three o'clock, he'd only made it to six of them. One of those hadn't even been home either. Like with his first batch, most of them had been eliminated as possibles. One of the men, however, had really pissed him off. Amaro had come pretty close to punching the guy in the face. The only thing that had saved him was the man's coworker coming in to take him back to work. That one was still on his list of guys to check out more.

"Please tell me you found someone that just came out and told you he kidnapped them," Munch begged when he saw Amaro walk in.

He and Fin hadn't had any better of a day than Amaro. As they'd been waiting for him to return, they'd been commiserating together.

"I wish," Amaro muttered as he set his stack of files down and started sorting them into three piles: confirmed alibi, not home, suspect.

"How many did you eliminate?" Fin asked when Amaro was done.

"Seven total. You guys?"

"Three," Munch grumbled in annoyance. He'd met with quite a bit of resistance in almost every one of his interviews. Plus, he'd been stuck with the families who were spread all over the map. Shorter list or not, he hadn't gotten through them all.

"I got eight off mine. Maybe nine, but I'd rather be safe before we eliminate number nine," Fin added.

"So eighteen gone, and, what? Twenty or so more to go?" Amaro asked.

"Still seems like a hell of a lot," Fin groaned.

"Hopefully the captain's press conference will help," Amaro added.

"Or it could send us on a wild goose chase with ten more potential suspects," Munch pointed out.

"Are you ever optimistic, Munch?" Fin demanded.

"Sure. Just now. I only said ten suspects. That's really optimistic. It'll probably be more like thirty."

Fin growled and took a menacing step toward Munch. Amaro didn't really think they'd hurt each other, but he figured he should probably try to break them up anyway.

"Guys, we should go check in with the captain. See if he already has the press conference set up."

That seemed to do the trick and drew both of their attention. Without a word to each other, they both headed toward the captain's office. Amaro nodded gratefully and followed behind them. He wasn't sure if the press conference would help, but at least if they received any tips related to one of the families in their files they'd know it was good. Otherwise, they would keep going the way they were and have volunteer officers handle the rest. At least he'd hope they wouldn't have to handle the rest. They couldn't afford to be sidetracked.

Fin hadn't even had the chance to knock on Cragen's door before the captain came out to meet them. He was in his dress blues, so the press conference was either coming up or had just happened.

"When's it goin' out, Cap?" Fin asked.

"Eight and ten tonight. They just made the deadline. It'll go out again tomorrow too," he answered.

The detectives all nodded. Munch opened his mouth to ask something, but Cragen had been predicting it. He answered the question before it could even be voiced.

"You guys aren't working the tip lines if I can help it. We have volunteer unis coming in. I want all of you to finish sorting those files, get all of the property information you can on them, and set up a plan for tomorrow. Then get some rest."

None of them argued the rest idea. They weren't going to be able to go another day without real sleep. Rest had become a necessity and not a luxury.

"Should we assume we're getting another letter tomorrow?" Amaro asked.

Cragen hadn't thought that far ahead, but it was an important detail. He could see how a letter could alter their plans for the next morning.

"Assume yes. We'll try to work it like we did today. Get at least one person started on interviews and leave at least one here just in case."

"Guys, if we want to see the eight o'clock showing of the press conference, we might still make it," Munch said as he glanced at his watch. "It's not even 8:15 yet."

"Flip it on, and we'll watch as we work," Fin directed. "Hopefully we didn't already miss it."

"If we had, we'd know," Munch told him.

"How?" Amaro asked in confusion.

Munch eyed Nick like he was a bit slow. The answer was obvious. At least it was to him. He nodded down the hall to where the tip line phones were set up.

"The phones would already be ringing off the hook, and they're not."

At 8:23 the press conference began with Cragen explaining Olivia and Amanda's disappearance. Pictures of both detectives appeared on the screen a moment later. They were followed by Cragen discussing their suspect. The sketch was displayed as the man's physical characteristics were listed. Cragen then continued by informing everyone watching that they believed this suspect's family or close friends had been the victims of a similar crime. As usual, the conference was ended by asking the public to call the tip line if they had any important information about the missing women or the suspect. The letters had been deliberately left out.

Merely minutes after the press conference ended, the circus of phone calls began. Munch smiled over at Amaro, his earlier point proven.

"I'm really glad I'm not in there fielding calls," Amaro said thankfully.

"You're not the only one," Fin replied.

Nobody liked being stuck on tip line duty. For every reasonable tip they received there were at least twenty ridiculous ones.

"Let's get busy so the captain doesn't change his mind and send us in there, huh?" Munch asked.

The other two didn't need to be told twice. It didn't have everything to do with the threat of working the tip lines either, though that did play a tiny part. They just desperately wanted to find their two missing friends and sitting around definitely wouldn't do that.


	18. Chap 17 Six Days to Death

Chapter Seventeen – Six Days to Death

By 6:30 the next morning Fin, Nick, and Munch were awake and back to work again. All of them felt refreshed and ready to go. They'd taken time the night before to go home, shower, and get fresh clothes for the next day. It had made a big difference.

Fin had checked in with the coordinator for the tip line once the three detectives had finalized their plan for the day. As he'd expected, most of the tips they'd gotten hadn't been anywhere near credible. A few had been worth checking out, but further investigation had turned up nothing. Fin had been assured that they would keep taking tips and looking into them. When the press conference came on again at eight that morning, the tip line would be flooded once more. Fin thanked him and headed back to the other detectives.

"They didn't get anything helpful," Fin told Amaro and Munch once he'd reached his desk.

"Another reason why I'm glad I wasn't working it," Amaro replied.

"So we go back to our stack and let them keep working on their own," Munch added.

He clapped Amaro on the shoulder and held out the list of names to start interviewing. Being the newest detective, Nick had drawn the short straw. While Fin and Munch worked on pulling up property information until their next letter arrived, Amaro would be interviewing anyone they hadn't reached the day before. At least until he was redirected based on the new information they would hopefully receive in the note.

"Thanks," Amaro answered sarcastically as he took the list and headed out.

Spending the morning getting yelled at by irate suspects was just what he wanted to do. If he had a real reason to suspect these people he wouldn't mind making them angry with an accusation of kidnapping. Since they didn't have any hard evidence, Nick couldn't help feeling a bit bad. He would deal with it since it would help Amanda and Olivia though.

0~0~0~0

Again around 9:30, a third letter came from their kidnapper. It had been brought in the same way as before, and Munch was able to take the man's information and ask him about the letter's author in a matter of minutes.

"Definitely the same guy," Munch confirmed as he returned to Cragen and Fin.

Both men were already searching through the files to narrow them down. They were moving frantically and almost excitedly. So far neither one of them had cared to clue Munch in on how they were going to narrow their list.

"It's fine. I can just figure it out by myself," John told them as he moved over to read the newest letter.

_You don't have much longer you know._

_Six days is all you get. So far you_

_haven't found them. Will you?_

Well, now he didn't need to ask how they were reducing the list. The six days was important to their kidnapper; it wasn't just a random number. He turned back toward Cragen and Fin.

"I take it we're assuming his family was found after six days."

"Yeah. That's what we're looking at now," Fin answered, his eyes still on the file he was working with.

"Are we counting the day they went missing?" Munch asked as he pulled his own file to start looking through.

"Yes," Cragen answered. "Keep anything close in a separate pile of possibilities as well. We can't be completely sure how he's counting the days."

"Before ya start, call Amaro and let 'im know we got the letter," Fin directed.

"At your service," John answered.

Fin just rolled his eyes at the barb and kept going. Munch would handle the phone call. A few taps of his phone later and Munch was connected with Amaro.

"Where are you?"

"_No hello?"_ Nick asked when he picked up. _"I'm on my way to a second interview."_

"Who are you going to?"

"_Harbringer."_

Munch turned toward Fin and called out the name. If Fin checked the file and came up with nothing near their six day limit, Munch would tell Nick to skip the interview. Fin held up two fingers and shook his head. Munch nodded and turned his attention back to the phone.

"Don't bother, Nick. It's not him."

"_You want me to come back?"_

"Anyone else out in that area?"

"_Not really."_

"Come on back then. You can do what I did."

"_You mean come back just so I can go out again?"_ he demanded.

"Exactly."

"_Great. I'll see you there in forty five minutes,"_ Nick muttered.

0~0~0~0

When Amaro arrived at the precinct, Fin, Cragen, and Munch had already sorted through all twenty six files. All but four had been completely eliminated as suspects. Cragen waved Nick over.

"Four left," he told Nick as he motioned to the four pictures on their case board.

"Matthew Ortega. His wife and teenage daughter were abducted and found dead six days later," Fin explained as he pointed toward the first one.

"Chester Ellison," Munch continued. "He doesn't fit perfectly, but we're including him because his two daughters were abducted and killed in five days. However, they'd been missing for a day before it was reported. I tried to interview him before, but he wouldn't talk. Hopefully this time he will."

Amaro already knew what the new restriction on suspects was thanks to these two cases. Any case where the victim wasn't found dead in six days had been eliminated. From what Munch had explained, he would have included Ellison on their suspect list too.

"Third is Christopher Shannon. Wife and daughter taken and killed after six days," Fin added.

"The last one," Cragen began, "is Thomas Alexander. Wife and sister were abducted. Their bodies were found a week later, but the ME concluded they'd been dead around 24 hours. That leaves us at six days."

Amaro nodded. It made sense to him.

"So, what's the plan? We each go and talk to one?" he asked.

"Fin, John, you two interview Shannon and Alexander. Amaro and I will take Ortega and Ellison. If you have a bad feeling, play it safe and call us. We aren't prepared for a fire fight, and I'd like to avoid one," Cragen directed.

Fin and Munch nodded and gathered the list of addresses they would need. Each of them knew they needed to find Amanda and Olivia fast, but they also knew they needed to play it by the book. Anything else could completely destroy the case, and Amanda and Liv would never get justice.


	19. Chap 18 Formed or Broken

Chapter Eighteen – Formed or Broken

"Hey. Good morning," Amanda said quietly when she saw that Olivia was awake.

"Hey."

The response was weak and mumbled. She still wasn't really awake, and her mind was fuzzy with fever and pain. The bruising and swelling around her eye hadn't gotten any better either.

"How are you feeling?" Amanda asked, still keeping her voice down just in case Olivia's headache had gotten worse.

"Okay, I guess."

She hadn't completely denied the pain by saying she was fine. That alone worried Amanda. Since she'd willingly admitted she was in pain, Olivia must really be hurting. Or at least she had admitted it as much as she ever would.

"Here. Take some aspirin."

Olivia rubbed the unbruised side of her head and took a few minutes to put her thoughts together. When she spoke up, she still kept her head down.

"How many are left?"

"What?" Amanda asked, a little bit startled by the sudden question.

Olivia lifted her head slightly to ask again, thinking Amanda hadn't heard her. Not wanting Olivia to waste the little energy she had, Amanda quickly answered.

"Half a bottle. Maybe a little less."

"Number?"

"I'm not going to sit and count them, Liv. There's enough for you to take some now."

Amanda shook two out into her hand and passed them over to Olivia. She wasn't going to give her much of a chance to argue about the pills. Even if it didn't help bring her fever down, it should ease the pain she was in. Olivia groaned and took the pills reluctantly. Grinning, Amanda grabbed the new water Chris had left and handed it to Liv as well.

She swallowed both down without a word and pulled the blanket tighter around her. Amanda came and sat down next to her, silently offering this morning's breakfast of dry Cheerios. When Olivia gave no sign that she'd even noticed the food, Amanda gently nudged her arm. Olivia glanced over and pulled a very small handful out of the box.

"You're actually eating without me telling you to?" Amanda asked in amazement. "Either you're really feeling better or you're so sick you aren't thinking straight."

She pressed a hand to Olivia's forehead, trying to gauge her temperature. Olivia pulled away before she could get a good read though.

"I'm okay," she insisted weakly.

Amanda seriously doubted that. If her friend was okay, she wouldn't have cared if Amanda felt her head. In fact, she might have even requested it to prove her point. Since Olivia had pulled away, she obviously wanted to hide the fact that she still had a fever. Amanda was guessing it was a pretty high one too.

"You have to be cold. Why don't you take the blanket for awhile?" Olivia asked in an effort to change the subject.

"I'm okay," Amanda countered, using Olivia's own words.

Really she would love the blanket. While she had gotten a little more used to the cold temperature than she had been at first, she definitely wouldn't have minded warming up a bit. Chilly or not, Olivia needed the blanket far more than she did. Olivia's hand snaked out and caught Amanda's arm.

"You're freezing."

Olivia really wasn't thinking straight because that touch went two ways. Just as Olivia could tell Amanda's skin was cold, Amanda could feel the heat streaming off of Olivia's. She still had a massive fever, though Amanda couldn't tell if it was worse than the day before or not.

"Your cold germs are all over that blanket. If I share it, I'll end up sick too," Amanda argued.

"Probably will just by being in here with me for so long."

Amanda seriously wouldn't doubt it. If she didn't end up sick it would be a miracle. Not that she was going to admit that to Olivia. It would ruin her only excuse for making sure the other detective kept the blanket.

"I'd rather not take any chances."

Olivia nodded and shivered, closing her eyes and taking a death grip on the edge of the blanket. She looked vulnerable and almost child-like. It unsettled Amanda. Even though it hadn't started out that way, Olivia was now the rock of stability in the department, especially for the two newer detectives. If either of them was having trouble dealing with something, Olivia would be there with the support they needed. A gentle touch on the shoulder, a quiet word, or a full sit down talk. She'd do whatever she could to help them and never asked for anything in return.

Of course she wouldn't ever let anyone try to help her in return either.

Maybe this time Amanda could do something to help her. She scooted in a little bit closer so her shoulder was resting against Olivia's. When Olivia's eyes opened and turned toward her, Amanda smiled.

"You're not alone. I'm here."

It didn't sound like much, but Amanda thought it was the best way to go. Hopefully with something so outwardly small Olivia wouldn't pull away. With a little extra luck Olivia would get the full message behind the words too.

If she needed anything at all, Amanda was there for her.

Olivia's fingers loosened slightly on the blanket, but otherwise she gave no sign of how much the words had meant.

"Thank you."

Olivia looked away for a moment before speaking again.

"I thought you didn't want to get too near me and this contaminated blanket."

She kept her eyes turned away until she finished. When she did, she glanced at Amanda with a teasing half smile.

"I think I can risk it," Amanda returned with a wide grin on her face. This was the first time they'd ever shared any kind of joke together.

It was strange how situations like this could either form or break bonds between people. Never had Amanda felt this close to or accepted by Olivia than she did in that moment. She slipped her hand into Olivia's and squeezed. Olivia squeezed back.

They weren't out of this game yet.


	20. Chap 19 And Then There Was One

Chapter Nineteen – And Then There Was One

Fin and Munch had just finished their first interview with Thomas Alexander and were on their way to Shannon's place when Cragen called.

"Hey, Cap," Fin answered before putting the phone on speaker.

"_How are you two doing?"_

"Just finished with Alexander. I doubt he's our guy. He remarried, and he wouldn't have done that if he wanted revenge. This guy has moved on. Our suspect is still livin' only for the two who were abducted and killed," Fin explained. "How 'bout you?"

"_Amaro's currently driving us around in circles."_

"Sounds like fun," Munch called out.

"_Very. Hopefully we'll get there before dinner. You want to join?"_

"Dinner, yes, as long as you're having something good. Driving in circles, no. I'm going to leave that fun to you."

"You done any interviews yet?" Fin asked before Cragen could respond.

"_We talked to Ellison already. The guy's a real piece of work, but he has an alibi. Eventually Amaro will get us to Ortega's work. We'll see if that gets us anywhere."_

"I did warn you that he was," Munch replied.

"We'll call if we think it's our guy. We're on our way to his work address now," Fin cut in.

"You mean we're pulling in now," Munch corrected.

"See what I have to deal with? Sure you don't want to trade?"

"_I'm good, Fin. Amaro will eventually figure out the way. John will never change."_

"Thanks a lot," Fin grumbled as he hung up the phone.

"You know, personally I think not changing is a good thing. It gives you consistency. Besides, you know you love being my partner," Munch grinned as he got out of the car.

"Yeah, like I'd love a toothache."

Fin followed Munch inside the hardware store, and they flashed their badges to the clerk behind the counter.

"We're looking for Christopher Shannon. He here?" Munch asked.

The clerk glanced nervously between the two detectives and licked his lips before answering. Fin picked up on the nervous gesture.

"You him under a false name," Fin glanced at the man's name tag before continuing, "Evan?"

The store clerk, Evan, immediately stumbled into an explanation.

"No! Chris isn't here. At least I don't think he is, but you'd have to check with the manager to be sure. Why? He do something?"

"Just need to talk to 'im, man. Now where's your boss?" Fin asked.

"Uh, that way. In the back storage room."

Munch and Fin followed where Evan was pointing. It wasn't hard to find the storage room door, and from there they easily found the manager. A quick introduction was all they needed to get started.

"You seen Chris?" Fin asked.

"Not since the day he up and quit. It came out of nowhere," the manager, Tim Hussey, explained.

"When was that?"

"About five days ago. The guy didn't give any kind of explanation for it. He was a good worker even if he wasn't one for conversation. I was sad to see him go."

"What else can you tell me about him?" Munch asked.

"Like I said, he didn't talk much. Never shared details of his life, never really got involved with any of the staff. A real loner. I felt kind of bad for him in a way. He always looked so sad. It showed in his eyes. Really sunken and dull."

Fin and Munch glanced at each other. This had to be their guy. Every one of the witnesses had mentioned the sunken eyes and depressed look. Tim didn't seem to notice their silent communication and just continued.

"Since he worked in the back and didn't deal with customers, his personality and appearance didn't really matter."

"He not a nice guy? Got a temper?" Fin questioned.

"He's a nice enough guy when you can actually get a word out of him. I've never seen him get mad."

"Alright. Thank you for your time," Munch told him as they shook hands. "Will you call us if he contacts you?"

"Sure," Tim answered as he took the card Munch was offering him. "Can I ask what you think he did? I can't picture him committing a crime."

"We can't really share details with you, but we think he might have been involved in an abduction," Fin explained.

"Abduction? You're kidding, right?"

"Afraid not," Munch told him. "Thanks for your time."

Munch and Fin nodded to Tim and headed out. They had all of the information they needed. When they were back in the car again, Fin pulled out his phone to update Cragen.

"We think we've got 'im, Captain. Chris Shannon quit his job five days ago. That's the day before Liv and Rollins went missin'."

"_That could just be circumstantial,"_ Cragen replied.

He and Amaro had been in the middle of interviewing Matthew Ortega. When he'd gotten the call, Cragen had excused himself to take it, leaving Amaro alone. That was fine considering his detective had formed an instant rapport with Ortega. If anyone could get the truth out of Ortega and convince him to talk right now it would be Amaro. Cragen wasn't really needed.

"_What else do you have?"_

"We didn't have the sketch of 'im, but the manager mentioned the eyes on his own."

"_And you think it's him?"_

"Know it is, Cap."

"_John agree?"_

"Yeah. It's 'im, Captain," Fin insisted. "We're headin' to his place now to see if he's there."

"_Alright. Watch your backs and call me when you get something. Amaro and I will join you as soon as we can."_

"Got it," Fin answered.

Once he'd hung up, Fin turned to Munch and nodded him on. He had absolutely no doubt that Chris Shannon was their guy. Most criminals weren't stupid enough to keep their victims in their own house, especially if there was more than one. Screaming tended to draw attention from the neighbors. Still, there was a chance that Amanda and Olivia could be stashed there. Even if they weren't, Shannon might be, and they'd bring him into interrogation and break him for the women's location. They were going to end this today.


	21. Chap 20 Two Hours of Forever

Chapter Twenty – Two Hours of Forever

When Munch and Fin tried Chris Shannon's house, they found that he wasn't home. Nobody had answered the door and none of the lights were on inside.

"Captain, Shannon's not here," Munch said over the phone as he watched Fin pace around near the car.

They'd circled the place and checked windows just to be sure they couldn't see anything that would give them reasonable cause to go inside. It hadn't gotten them anything. Amanda and Olivia could be inside, but there was nothing they could do about it.

"_Alright. Give me his work address. We'll swing by and show his boss the sketch. If he can ID him, that plus the information we have about when he quit and what was in the letters could be enough to get us a warrant."_

"You want us to just wait around here?"

"_Unless you have some other idea of where he'd be, yes."_

"No friends or family around here as far as we know. Boss said he was a loner."

"_I'll call Cabot and have her get the paperwork started. The second we get the warrant I'll tell you."_

Fin had walked back to the car while Munch was talking to Cragen. He'd gone over their file on Shannon and hurried back over. His rush caught Munch's attention, and he glanced over at Fin. A second later the file was shoved in his face, Fin's finger pointing at one line in particular. An address.

"Captain, I've got to go. There's another address in Shannon's file. Some other property that he owns. Though how the guy could manage the payments on one place let alone two with his crappy part time job I have no idea. Some people have all the luck when it comes to things like that."

"_Just go check it out, John."_

"Will do."

"Let's go," Fin prodded as he strode back toward the car.

"Impatience, impatience."

"With good reason. Now get in and let's go."

Munch climbed in and pulled the door shut behind him.

"Cragen's getting us our warrant for Shannon's property," Munch said.

"Good."

Fin peeled out of the driveway and shot off down the road. He wasn't going to waste any more time. Munch grabbed the door and immediately reached out to click on his seatbelt. Usually he would come up with some sarcastic joke about Fin's insane driving, but he knew his partner wasn't really in the mood.

"Do you have any idea how to get there?"

"No, I just figure you'll realize that you should make the damn call to get the directions. Hopefully before I go too far down the highway," Fin growled.

Yes, definitely not in the mood. Munch held his hands up in mock surrender, and his next remark was bitingly sarcastic.

"I will. Just don't eat me."

"I wouldn't dream of it. Probably would get sick and die after just one bite."

"Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Munch muttered as he pulled his phone out and called the central office for directions.

"I got a good reason, alright? And how the hell can you say you're in a good mood?" Fin asked as he shot his partner a dark look across the front seat.

"Am I not being viciously sarcastic enough to show I'm in a bad… ah, yes, this is Sergeant Munch from the one six," John said, turning away from his partner the moment his call was answered. "I need directions."

Fin shook his head in annoyance and kept driving. He knew that Munch wasn't really in a better mood than he was despite his apparent lack of anger. That wasn't enough to make Fin not call him out on it though. Having someone actually there to direct his anger at made Fin feel a little better even if Munch wasn't the person he was really pissed with.

"Take exit 153. This place is out in the boonies," Munch grumbled as he hung up.

"How long's it gonna take?"

"Around two hours."

Fin increased the pressure of the accelerator a little bit when he heard that. Two hours was a long time, and Fin wasn't so sure he had the patience for it. They finally had their guy, which meant their missing detectives were almost within reach. The fact that they were so close made the two hours feel even longer than the multiple days they'd already spent working the case.

They were winding their way down country roads awhile later when Munch's phone rang. It was Cragen calling about the warrant.

"_We got it. You have permission to search the place, but I'd rather you wait for backup."_

"We've waited long enough. Amanda and Liv could be in there. We're not making them wait any longer."

"_How far out are you?_

Munch glanced at the directions and the clock, taking a few seconds to make a quick calculation.

"We're about half an hour from his place. Maybe less."

This time it was Cragen's turn to pause. They were close to reaching their location, and if they had to wait for backup they'd be waiting awhile. Cragen seriously doubted they would wait though. The best he could do was warn them of the risks, make sure they used their heads, and uselessly request they wait for aid. He sighed.

"_Just be careful. This guy is alright with kidnapping cops. I'd rather you two not find out what else he's alright with."_

"Will do, Cap. You might as well start sending everybody this way. It's a long drive."

"_I'll make the call. Amaro and I will head there now. The uniforms and CSU can handle searching Shannon's house on their own."_

"I will gladly send you the address and directions so Amaro doesn't get you lost out here in no man's land."

"_Thanks, John. We'll meet you there."_

Munch hung up and glanced over at Fin. His partner's gaze flickered off the road for a moment and locked on his eyes. He felt the same way Munch did. They weren't waiting for backup. There was just no way.

"They better drive fast," Fin muttered.

"Nobody is going to catch up with us no matter how fast they drive."

Fin had been pushing the speed limit since the moment they'd left. Even if the others did the same, they would be way behind.

"Then they better put on the damn sirens if they want us to have backup. I ain't waitin'."

"And you think I would try to stop you?" Munch asked as he gazed over the rims of his glasses at Fin.

"Nah. Even you're not that dumb."

Munch snorted and shook his head.

"I'm just going to take that as a compliment."

"Whatever you wanna do."


	22. Chap 21 Nowhere Yet Everywhere

Chapter Twenty One – Nowhere yet Everywhere

When Fin and Munch finally reached the address they weren't really sure what they were looking at. There was no real address listed, but the gravel driveway had to be what they were looking for. As far as either one of them could tell, the driveway just went way back through the sparse woods into nowhere. They couldn't see a house or any other kind of building.

"You sure this is it?" Fin asked skeptically as he looked at the gravel path.

"Has to be."

"Way back in the woods and out of the way of any kind of civilization. Perfect," Fin muttered in annoyance.

"Perfect place to hold people hostage," Munch agreed even though he knew that wasn't what his partner had been getting at.

Fin turned down the drive without another word. If this was where Olivia and Amanda had been taken, the fact that they'd been kidnapped hours apart made sense. Shannon would have needed all of that time to get from Olivia's apartment to here and back into the city again. Apparently he hadn't wanted to risk having them both in the car together despite the length of the drive.

As they continued driving, the scenery didn't change much. A few trees, but otherwise it was all empty land. Finally they spotted the roof of a house in the distance.

"Well, there's somethin'," Fin muttered as they continued to bump their way down the drive.

"You see the wall?"

Fin frowned and gazed at what Munch was calling a wall. It could hold that purpose, but he thought it was kind of dumb. Someone could climb over that easily enough.

"Looks like those concrete barricades they use on the highway to stop cars from goin' into traffic movin' in the opposite direction," Fin confirmed.

"Someone needs to hire a new exterior decorator."

"I wouldn't admire his decoratin' anyway," Fin grumbled as he kept driving.

They pulled through the gap in the wall a moment later. There were very few trees inside the border. It was mostly just gravel and wide open spaces with a few small buildings scattered around. Sitting outside the house they'd seen on the way in was an older model blue SUV. Besides the two detectives nobody else seemed to be around.

"Let's check the car."

Fin nodded and pulled to a stop a short distance away. They both got out slowly, guns drawn. Together they crept toward the car, being careful to take in everything going on in the surrounding area. Fin reached the vehicle first and took a look inside.

"It's clear."

Munch had just reached the other side of the car when he heard Fin swear. He glanced over at his partner in silent question.

"There are bolt cutters on the floor in the backseat."

"Used to break the security chain," Munch reasoned.

"And knock Liv out. There's blood on the end of 'em."

That just pissed both of them off. They'd known Olivia had been hit with something during the abduction, but knowing what that something was, was different. Bolt cutters were heavy and sharp in places. With enough force, they could crack a skull. While they hadn't found a lot of blood in Olivia's apartment that actually belonged to her, she could still have a serious head injury. If it was bad enough or bleeding internally, she could be dead by now too.

"I swear when I find this guy I'm goin' to tear 'im apart," Fin growled.

The fury was obvious in the tensing of his jaw and the hand on the grip of his gun. Munch didn't doubt Fin wanted to kill the guy for a second. Even he wasn't so sure he thought rotting in prison for the rest of his life was enough of a punishment for this creep. Munch slipped around the car and placed a hand on Fin's arm in a silent request to calm down.

"Cover me while I call Cragen."

"Why the hell are you callin' 'im? We can search the house on our own as we wait for 'em to get here," Fin growled back, obviously not liking the idea.

"Do you really want us to find them only to have Olivia need an ambulance that isn't here because we couldn't take the time to call and tell them where the entrance is?" Munch asked acidly.

He had a reason for wanting to make the call, and it had nothing to do with postponing the search. Fin had to admit that Munch had a point, so he shut up and covered his partner as Munch called Cragen. So far they seemed to be the only things moving out there, but Fin wasn't going to take chances. Munch snapped his phone shut several minutes later.

"He said thank you, and he'd relay the information to EMS, CSU, and SWAT," Munch informed his partner.

"They're bringin' in the whole cavalry."

"Of course. This is two of our own we're talking about."

"Then let's go find 'em. We can search the house while we're waitin'."

As gung-ho as Munch had been about searching the house on their own, the situation had changed. The area was too large to cover with just two people. If they went in now, chances were they would lose Shannon. Munch hated the thought of it, but he knew they had to wait.

"And just magically keep him from walking out the back door as we do? Or just waltzing right off the property?"

Fin growled in annoyance.

"How far away are they?"

"About forty minutes."

"That's too long, man!"

"I never said we couldn't take a little peek in the windows while we waited."

"Now you're talkin'!"

Fin didn't waste a second striding toward the house, an almost malicious grin on his face. They were going to nail this guy to the god damn wall.


	23. Chap 22 The Search

Chapter Twenty Two – The Search

The investigation via the windows of the little farm house hadn't revealed much of anything. In fact, the only thing Munch and Fin had found odd was the over abundance of framed photos in many of the rooms. As far as either of them could tell, the photos all held at least one of the same two people in them, assumingly Beth and Lindsay Shannon. It was almost like Chris Shannon had brought every single one from home and moved them here. That only solidified their suspect's obsession with his dead family in Fin's and Munch's minds.

"Dammit," Fin snapped as they returned to the car. He hadn't really been expecting to just see Olivia and Amanda through the windows, but it would have been nice.

"Back up should be here any minute, and then we can go in," Munch assured.

"They better, or I'm just gonna say to hell with it and kick in the door."

"I realize that patience has never been your strong point, but it's particularly bad today."

"You want me to take my lack of patience out on your ass?"

"I rather like my ass the way it is, thanks. Besides, they're here."

Munch pointed to the squad car pulling through the short concrete wall. It was followed by an entire horde of vehicles, every one of them kicking up a cloud of dust as they approached. Cragen and Amaro got out of the first car and headed over to where Fin and Munch were waiting.

"What have we got?" Cragen asked when he reached them.

"Haven't seen any movement and no reason to go in based on what we could see through the windows," Munch explained, kindly leaving out Fin's lack of patience.

"SWAT's suiting up. Once they're set, we'll go in."

"Captain, SWAT is loaning us vests just in case," Amaro told him as he accepted the extras from the leader of the team and brought them over to Cragen and the others.

Once the vests had been passed out and strapped on they were all ready to go. Cragen sent Fin and Munch around back with part of SWAT while he and Amaro took the rest in through the front. Two extra SWAT agents remained outside both the front and back door in case their suspect somehow found a way to slip out. Everyone moved in, securing the house room by room.

They checked each and every room in the house, including the tiniest side closet until they were through. The main floor was clear. Upstairs was clear. Even the basement was clear. Just like their earlier sweep of Shannon's main residence, this search had turned up nothing.

Fin stormed past the SWAT agent posted outside, nearly barreling him over. The only reason Amaro hadn't followed suit was the fact that Cragen was physically restraining him. He released Amaro once they were outside and let the detective pace and curse while he motioned CSU into the house. There had been no sign that Olivia or Amanda had been held there, but there was evidence of someone living inside recently. Once CSU was set up inside, the SWAT captain came over to Cragen.

"What would you like us to do now? There's a lot of land out here, and it's still possible your missing detectives are here somewhere."

"We split up and search every building. If they're here, we're going to find them," Cragen answered.

He received a nod in reply, and the SWAT captain headed back to his team to split them up for the search. Cragen turned back to his own team. Fin and Nick both looked like caged lions, pacing around and emanating fury and frustration. John appeared a little bit more in control, but Cragen didn't miss the slight slump of his shoulders.

"Should I have the three of you wait in the car or do you think you're capable of joining in the search?" Cragen demanded.

"Where do you want us to start, Captain?" Fin asked with fire blazing in his eyes.

"That's better," Cragen said in approval. "Fin, Amaro, you two are going with two SWAT agents and starting at the closest building on the right. Munch and I will go with another group to the left, and we'll send SWAT alone down the middle. Work your way toward the back of the property."

It took about five minutes to get everyone organized and starting off in their individual directions. As far as they could tell, there were at least ten little storage sheds scattered across the property. Many of them seemed to be in disrepair. Since the ground was only covered in gravel, the detectives couldn't find a well traveled path that would lead them straight to the correct shed. Instead they had to follow Cragen's orders and search every one of them.

"Ready?" Nick asked as he prepared to kick down the door of their first shed.

Fin nodded from the other side, ready to go in first. The two SWAT agents with them nodded their approval as well. Having the go ahead, Nick reached over and tried the knob. As he'd expected, the door was locked. A quick snap kick to the wood was all it took to break the door open.

All four men piled into the room, guns drawn. They spread out, careful to pay attention to any potential hiding places where they could be ambushed. That didn't happen though.

They made it through the entire room without any trouble. The only things inside were old, empty barrels, all of which were covered in dust. At one point they'd probably been used to store some kind of food or liquid, but there was no way they'd been used in a long time. The shed had been completely abandoned.

Or at least half of it had been.


	24. Chap 23 On the Other Side

Chapter Twenty Three – On the Other Side

On the other side of the shed and through a separate entrance, Chris had heard the door break and the voices that had followed. So, they had figured it out. It was earlier than he'd planned too. Then again, the fact that they'd made it in only four days proved his point. When they had incentive to find the victim, they would work faster.

Chris had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing the expressions on their faces. He was sure they now understood the pain he'd gone through and the need to hurry, but the looks of anger mixed with fear would prove it. Unless they missed the second door, they would find him soon. Chris just stayed sitting right where he was in the center of the room. There was no point in hiding when you wanted to be found. He glanced down at the photo in his hands and lovingly trailed his thumb over his wife's and daughter's faces.

"It's almost over, girls. In a few minutes I will have finally gotten revenge for your deaths. Not much longer. Not much longer at all."

0~0~0~0

Down below in the concrete cell that had once, a very long time ago, stored perishable food underground where it could stay cool, Amanda and Olivia were oblivious to their coming rescue. Noise never filtered down to them unless it was the top door opening. This afternoon was just as silent as any other.

Chris had come down earlier to empty the bucket and had left back up the stairs again as usual. They didn't know that he had been forced to stay in their enclosure because he'd seen two people arrive on his property.

Olivia was awake, but not really there. Amanda had gotten her propped against the wall at her request, the blanket tucked tightly around her. Eyes glassy, Olivia just stared straight ahead. She was still shivering, and her body was coated in layers of sweat. Her head was rocking lightly to one side or the other from time to time when the dizziness took over. Really focusing or moving was impossible without a lot of effort.

"Are you sure you don't want to lie back down? You look like you're going to fall over," Amanda asked in concern.

She knew Olivia still had a fever, and by this point she was probably very dehydrated too. One and a half bottles of water a day wasn't anywhere near enough when you were sick. Amanda received the general response she'd been expecting, a blink and a blank look. She sighed and reached out to tuck the blanket tighter around her friend.

"We'll be alright," she assured.

"Yeah," Olivia replied weakly. She believed it and forced her head up so she could meet Amanda's eyes and prove that she did no matter how dizzy it made her feel.

Amanda smiled gently in return. She could see how much of an effort Olivia had put into her response, and it meant a lot to her. Even now when Olivia was struggling so much, she was looking after Amanda.

0~0~0~0

"There's another door over here!"

A moment after the sentence had rung out Fin and Amaro were sprinting over to where the SWAT agent who'd spoken was. Soon enough they spotted the second entrance to the shed they'd just cleared. None of them remembered finding another door that led out of the room besides the one they'd broken down. This had to lead to somewhere different.

"What do you think? Storage closet?" Amaro asked as they all prepared themselves outside of the door.

"Doesn't matter what I think. We clear it anyway," Fin answered.

Amaro hadn't been suggesting that they didn't need to clear it even if it was only a storage closet. Fin was in a foul mood though, and Amaro didn't blame him for answering the way he had. Explaining what he had meant would only make matters worse. Besides, Fin already knew that Amaro hadn't meant anything by the question.

A quick look around the assembled officers showed that everyone was ready to go. Fin gave the SWAT agent next to the door a nod to proceed. Once again, one kick was all it took to break the door in. Amaro went in first, gun at the ready. Fin and the second SWAT agent flanked him on either side.

The room they'd walked into was tiny and dim. There was barely more to it than the size of a large bathroom, which meant they couldn't miss the room's occupant.

Chris simply sat in the lone chair in the middle of the room, his picture still in hand. The detective's faces were exactly what he'd expected them to be, with a little surprise added in for good measure. He smiled at them gently and made no move to get up. There was no reason to. Chris had known full well how this was going to end, and he didn't mind. He'd proven his point to all of them. Now that the end had come, he had no intention of running or fighting back.

Amaro spotted him right away and was a little startled. It took him less than a second to pull himself together and react though. He quickly leveled his gun at Chris.

"Keep your hands where I can see them and get on the ground!"

Fin would have loved to have a reason to attack Chris. Amaro wouldn't really have minded doing the same, but Chris didn't give them the chance. He simply did what Amaro had asked and got down on the ground with his arms out to the side.

"I got 'im," Fin growled as he slid his gun back into the holster at his hip.

He stalked toward Chris, pulling his cuffs out as he went. If he "accidentally" tightened the cuffs a little bit too tight so they bit into Chris' wrists, he didn't really care. Amaro noticed and couldn't help smirking a bit. He would have done the exact same thing.

Or worse.

Fin really did have decent control over his temper even if it didn't seem that way all of the time.

"Get up," Fin growled, yanking hard on the cuffs as an incentive.

Chris did as he was asked without a word. Most captured suspects looked nervous or angry when they were apprehended. A few who didn't think the cops could actually make anything stick looked arrogant and maybe even mildly amused. Chris fit none of those things. He appeared calm and at peace despite the cuffs. It only pissed Amaro off, and he really wanted to hit the guy. The calm look made it seem like Chris wanted to be caught, like he had a conscience.

Amaro wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. On one hand, it meant that he may not have hurt Olivia and Amanda. On the other, if he had a conscience then he should never have even _considered_ abducting the detectives.

"Where are they?" Fin snapped as he gave Chris one solid shake.

"In the cellar. It's the door over there."

He nodded toward the door on one wall. It was the only one in the room besides the door they'd all walked in through. Fin shoved Chris toward one of the SWAT agents and turned toward Amaro.

"Let's go."


	25. Chap 24 Coats and Socks

Chapter Twenty Four – Coats and Socks

Olivia had drifted back to sleep again, chin almost resting on her chest as she leaned against the wall. Amanda stayed close but otherwise just left her be. She needed the rest and there wasn't anything else she could really be doing.

Until the silence of the cell was suddenly shattered.

It had sounded like someone had tried to kick the upper door in. Amanda's head shot up, and she was on her feet within seconds. Even Olivia had opened her eyes and struggled to focus on the door which was outside of her line of sight.

Amanda was on her way to the barred grate when there was another thud, this one followed by splintering wood. She could see figures on the edges of the door, and her hopes soared. Chris had never come down with anyone else. Amanda was proven right when she saw Fin start down the steps, gun leveled.

"Fin!"

"Rollins." That one word was nearly dripping with relief.

The stark tenseness in Fin's shoulders eased. Amaro had rocketed down the few steps after Fin when he'd heard Rollins' voice. His gun was still out, but both he and Fin were partially ignoring the need to clear the room. The steps down were clear, and Amanda would have given them some sign if she wasn't alone. Plus, their suspect was in custody, and they'd seen no indication that he had a partner. Officially clearing the room didn't seem all that important. Right now all they cared about was the fact that they'd found Rollins and hopefully Olivia as well.

Fin thundered down the rest of the steps and somehow managed to stop himself before he collided with the bars. Amanda was clinging to them, relief pouring off of her. She'd never been happier to see her partner. This was finally over.

"You alrigh'? Anyone there with you?" Fin asked as he reached through the bars and rested his hand on Amanda's arm.

"It's just me and Olivia. I'm alright, but she's really sick, Fin."

Knowing that they were both relatively alright helped Fin relax more. It was then that he felt Amanda's trembling and cold skin.

"You're freezin'!"

"It's fine, Fin. Just get us out of here. Liv needs a doctor."

She was trying to keep her voice down so that Olivia didn't hear what she was saying. If she had, chances were she'd protest it and maybe even try to get up.

Fin wasn't really listening to Amanda at all. He simply pulled off his jacket and shoved it through the bars. There was no way he was going to let her freeze if he had a way to prevent it. Amanda certainly wasn't going to argue either. She took the coat, pushed her arms through the sleeves, and pulled it tight around her.

"Hey, Nick! Give me your coat!" Fin yelled up the steps.

Amaro frowned down at him in confusion. The moment he'd seen the padlock on the door, he'd retreated back upstairs. It wasn't the type of door they could just kick down. In order to get in they would need a key, and Chris Shannon knew where that was.

"Why?"

"Cause it's freezin' down here, and I only got one."

And there were two detectives trapped. Amaro got the drift and pulled off his suit coat. When he had it off, he tossed it down for Fin to catch.

"Tell them to hang tight. I'm working on getting the key now."

Fin caught the coat and passed it through the bars to Amanda before calling out to Amaro again.

"Call Cragen and let 'im know we found 'em."

"I will after I get you the key," he called out before he disappeared out of sight again.

Amanda waited to hear the rest of the conversation before she hurried over to Olivia and gently draped the coat around her.

"They're here?"

It wasn't really meant as a question. Olivia knew they were. She'd heard the voices, but she wanted confirmation. Amanda smiled and rubbed Olivia's arm.

"Yeah. They're working on getting us out."

"Liv! It's Fin! You alrigh'?"

"Fine," she croaked back before turning her attention to Amanda. "Help me up."

It was difficult to ask, but she knew she needed help. Her head was spinning and getting up would only make it worse. She was going to need Amanda's support if she didn't want to fall over.

"Sure," Amanda answered, playing it off as best she could so it wouldn't seem like a big deal.

She slid an arm around Olivia and slowly helped her to her feet. Olivia swayed and desperately clenched Amanda's arm to steady herself. It took a few seconds with her eyes closed for the wave of dizziness to subside. When it did she released her grip on Amanda and started forward, using the wall for support. Somehow that seemed less pathetic to her than getting help from another person.

It took her a long time to make it what was only a few stumbling steps across the cell. She stopped when she stood across from the door and slid down to the ground in exhaustion.

Fin had craned his head near the bars the second Liv had answered him so he could see her as soon as possible. The instant she was within view, he'd kept his eyes on her, watching each strained, wavering step she took. Olivia looked awful. Aside from the black eye which covered far more than just her eye, her face was sickeningly pale, and Fin could tell she'd used all of her energy to simply make it a few steps.

"Good to see you, Liv. We're gonna get you out in a second."

Olivia managed to give him a weak smile in return. That wasn't Olivia, and Fin didn't like it. He'd seen her in her worst moments, but there had always been a fire there, even if it took a second to appear. This time was different though. He couldn't find it without looking really hard. It wasn't there in the usual places, her words or facial expressions. Instead, the only part of her that still showed him the usual spark was her actions. She hadn't allowed Amanda to help her get across the cell. She'd had to do it by herself. That was the Liv he knew.

Still, she had to be feeling terrible. Even when she'd come into work with the flu a few years back, that fire, that spark had still been in her eyes. He couldn't have missed it even if he'd tried. This time he'd really had to try.

The thud of feet coming down the steps drew Fin out of his thoughts.

"Got it," Amaro said as he shifted Fin out of the way and slid the key into the lock. A quick turn of his wrist and the padlock clicked open.

"You guys are life savers," Amanda told them both as they entered the cell.

Fin gave her arm a pat and pulled her into a one armed hug. He could tell she was on the verge of tears, and he was going to offer what support he could to help hold her together.

"I'm just glad you're okay."

"Thanks, Fin."

Amaro moved to his own partner and knelt down next to her. It was his first real look at Olivia since her disappearance, and he didn't like what he was seeing. He tentatively reached out to brush her hair off her face. Hopefully she wouldn't push him away. Amazingly enough, Olivia let him do it.

"Hey."

"That's it?" Nick asked in surprise. "You get abducted and held hostage for four days and all I get when I find you is hey?"

Olivia smiled appreciatively, glad he was trying to keep the mood light.

"Yeah. That's it."

He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

"We're going to get you cleaned up and in a nice, warm bed in no time. Plus a doctor visit and something warm to drink."

"And socks."

"What?"

"I'd really like a pair of socks."

Nick glanced down at her bare toes and then up at her face again.

"I think we can do that."


	26. Chap 25 Reunited

Chapter Twenty Five – Reunited

"Captain, we found them," Amaro announced over the phone a minute after he'd made sure his partner was alright.

"_Where?"_

"First storage shed. The entrance is around the back side. We're going to need the paramedics. Amanda's alright, but Olivia is pretty weak."

"I'm fine," Liv protested, but it wasn't loud enough for Cragen to be able to pick it up over the phone.

Nick glanced over to her for a moment before turning his attention back to the phone and ignoring what she'd said.

"_How bad is she?"_

"Nick."

Again Nick glanced over to Olivia when she called his name. Her eyes said it all. She was fine, and he better report that to Cragen. Or else. Amaro really didn't want to know what the or else would be.

"She says she's okay," he answered, the but at the end silent yet obvious.

"_But she's being Olivia,"_ Cragen filled in. He knew his detective well enough to believe that Nick was correct in his assessment of her condition.

"Yeah."

"_We're on our way, and I'll have the EMTs drive over. Shannon in custody?"_

"SWAT has him."

"_Alright. Stay with her."_

"Of course."

Amaro hung up and turned to address the others.

"Munch and the captain are on their way to meet us. They're bringing the bus with them."

"Should probably get upstairs then," Fin mused.

"You two go ahead. I'll get Olivia," Nick told them.

"Sure you don't want help carryin' her up?"

"I don't need to be carried," Olivia insisted as she tried to pull herself to her feet.

She managed to get both feet under her before her knees buckled. Amaro was at her side immediately to catch her weight and keep her from falling. Olivia let him support her like that for a moment before slowly pushing away.

"I can get up the stairs on my own."

"Liv… It's a long way," Fin pointed out.

"I'll be fine.

"Olivia, please just let me help you," Nick pleaded as he kept a hand on her arm.

"I'll be _fine_, Nick. I don't need to be carried," she said acidly. Apparently the fire within her had been stoked, and she was acting more like herself despite her cold.

"Alright. I'll just walk beside you then. That's all."

Olivia didn't protest that and simply started toward the steps. She knew it was going to be a major trial to make it up just half of them, but she wanted to get out of here on her own two feet. Amaro stayed with her every step of the way. Whenever she seemed to need it he would grab her elbow and lend inconspicuous support. If she stumbled over a step, he'd quickly catch her. The minute she righted herself, he'd let go and allow her to continue on her own again without comment. When she needed a break, he'd stop with her and rest a hand on her back as she leaned against the wall.

It took ages for Nick and Olivia to reach the top of the steps, and when they did, Olivia looked pretty close to passing out. While Nick stayed by her side, Fin grabbed the chair they'd found Shannon sitting in and brought it over. Olivia sunk into it and cradled her head in her hands. She was so tired, and her body ached. Amaro squeezed her shoulder reassuringly before stepping aside to join Fin and Rollins.

"Are the paramedics here?"

Amaro didn't get the chance to hear the answer before Cragen and Munch came rushing into the shed. They didn't waste a moment in reaching Rollins. Munch gently touched her arm.

"It's good to see you."

"You have no idea." Amanda smiled and reached out to pat the hand that rested on her arm to show him she was alright. It was all a lie to hide the truth though. She wasn't alright. Now that they were here and the adrenaline and need to take over for Olivia was gone, she was doing everything she could to keep her fears from them.

"Detective."

Amanda turned to look at her captain and smiled gently once more. She knew he'd been worried the entire time she and Olivia had been gone.

"I'm fine, Captain. He didn't do anything to hurt us."

By that point the paramedics had managed to clear away a path through the gravel and were pushing a gurney into the shed. Cragen gave Amanda a nod of understanding before turning his attention to the other detectives.

"Liv and Rollins are both going to the hospital to get checked out. Let's get Rollins into the ambulance and Benson on the gurney. Where is she?"

"She's sitting down, Captain," Amaro explained as he nodded toward where Olivia was resting.

Cragen motioned to the paramedics and headed over to her. He knew Olivia would fight being wheeled out, so he needed to be there in case an order was required. More importantly though, he had to be sure she was alright. When he reached her side he knelt down next to her and rested a hand on her knee.

"Liv?"

She lifted her head wearily and somehow managed a hint of a smile.

"Hey, Captain."

"We're getting you to the hospital and having you looked over. Okay?"

She nodded but otherwise stayed silent. It could have just been that she was sick, but Cragen had a feeling there was more to Olivia's silence than that. He knew his detective and something was eating at her. Talking to her about it would wait until later though.

"Let's get you to the hospital."

He slipped an arm around her back and helped her to her feet. Together, he and the paramedics got her situated on the gurney without too much fuss. Before long they were heading toward the door to get her loaded into the ambulance.

Amaro, Fin, Munch, and Rollins watched Olivia pass them by before Nick turned to Amanda.

"Come on. We should get you out there too."

Amanda nodded in agreement and led the way to the door. The others followed, but when Amanda reached it Nick caught her arm.

"You don't have shoes on. I'll give you a piggyback ride."

"I can walk you know."

"And tear your feet to shreds on the rocks," Fin pointed out.

"It's only like five steps," she protested. "And why does it have to be a piggyback?"

"I thought it was a better option than a fireman's carry."

"Thanks for that," she grumbled as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Jump on three."

Amanda rolled her eyes and took charge before Amaro could start counting.

"Three."

She jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist. Startled by the sudden extra weight, Amaro lurched backwards in an attempt to regain his balance. If Fin and Munch hadn't caught him, he probably would have gone over.

"Pain," he grumbled.

"Just walk. After all, you were the one who wanted to carry me."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Last chapter goes up tomorrow!<p> 


	27. Chap 26 Placing Blame

Chapter Twenty Six – Placing Blame

Munch couldn't see how anyone could like waiting rooms. In fact, he couldn't see how anyone could like hospitals at all. They were like hungry leeches sucking out your soul. In other words they majorly sucked. He'd never had a good time in a hospital. The time Fin had snuck him in a milkshake didn't count since the bad outnumbered the good. Milkshakes were great, but they didn't out rank bullets to the ass.

"How much longer is this goin' to take?" Fin grumbled.

They'd been grouped together waiting for news on Amanda's and Olivia's conditions for ages. At least it felt like ages. The clock on the wall said otherwise.

"It's only been half an hour," Amaro pointed out.

"Since we been here. The bus left before we did."

"By maybe five minutes."

Chris Shannon had been left in the capable hands of SWAT. He'd been taken into custody and was currently enjoying the hospitality of a holding cell. Not that anyone really needed to interrogate him. They had him dead to rights and not one of the detectives thought he would plead not guilty. Chris had openly said he was prepared for the consequences of his actions when he'd been placed in the back of a squad car. He wasn't going to try to get out of jail time.

Since they hadn't needed to worry about Shannon, the remaining members of the SVU had left for the hospital right away. All they could do now was wait.

"Detectives?"

All four of them looked up at the sound of the nurse's voice. She smiled reassuringly at them, and they all subconsciously relaxed.

"We're done with Detective Rollins. Minor dehydration and lack of nutrients, but nothing that couldn't be fixed easily enough. She'll be released in a few hours if all goes well."

"Can we see her?" Fin asked.

"Of course. Down the hall, fourth room on the right."

"Do you know anything about our other detective?" Cragen questioned.

"No, but I can look into it. What's the name?"

"Olivia Benson."

The nurse nodded and headed off, presumably to find more information for them. Cragen glanced toward his detectives, easily picking up on their uncertainty. He knew what it was about right away.

"Go. I'll wait here for news on Olivia."

Fin and Munch nodded and started off, but Amaro hesitated. Olivia was his partner. As much as he cared about Amanda, Liv should come first.

"I'll wait with you."

"Go, Amaro. I need to speak with her alone anyway."

Nick nodded and turned away. If Cragen needed to speak with Olivia it was best if he didn't get involved. He had no idea what they could possibly need to discuss alone, but it wasn't his place to ask. For now he would go see Amanda.

0~0~0~0

It was almost another hour before news came about Olivia. Because of her head injury, the doctors had run more tests on her than they had on Amanda. Cragen had managed to remain relatively calm while he'd waited, but he was desperate for news. When the doctor called to him, Cragen had shot to his feet in a split second.

"Detective Benson has a mild concussion still, and she's very weak. Her fever and serious dehydration have taken a toll. We're getting fluids and nutrients into her and working on bringing her fever down a bit. She'll be fine, but we're going to keep her overnight. In the morning we'll see if she's going to need to stay longer."

It wasn't fantastic news, but considering what she had been through, Cragen would take it. The doctors would look after her, and she'd regain her strength in a few days.

"May I see her?"

"As long as you go easy and make sure she rests I don't think it would be a problem. This way."

Cragen followed the doctor down to Olivia's room and knocked gently on the door before entering. He pulled a chair up to the side of her bed and sat down. Her good eye opened and focused on him while the other remained swollen shut. Cragen felt his stomach tighten at the sight. She shouldn't have gotten hurt.

"How are you feeling?"

Olivia sighed and looked up at the ceiling. She was exhausted and hurting quite a bit, but it wasn't so much physical pain. It was guilt.

"I've been better."

Cragen nodded, having expected as much. He knew she'd placed the burden of what had happened on her own shoulders. She was blaming herself for being kidnapped and dragging Amanda into the mess as well. The guilt didn't belong to her, and he needed to make her see that. If he didn't, it would continue to eat her alive. She didn't deserve that.

"This wasn't your fault," he told her firmly.

Olivia sighed again and closed her eyes. She'd been the one to work Chris' case. If she'd found his family before they'd been killed his life wouldn't be in ruins and none of this would have happened. She had deserved the punishment Chris had handed out, and Amanda hadn't. The fact that she had been dragged in was on Olivia.

"You know, I keep telling myself that, but it doesn't change things. Amanda was put through all of this because of a mistake I made in a case years ago."

Cragen reached out and took Olivia's hand.

"Look at me." When she did, he continued. "You didn't make a mistake. I know you worked that case just as hard as you did every one of them. It's what makes you such a good detective. Unfortunately, you can't win them all regardless of how hard you work."

Olivia kept her eyes focused on his. She knew what he was saying was true. None of this was really her fault, but it still hurt.

"I just wish things could have been different."

"I know, Olivia. He made a choice not to let go, and you saw what happened. Don't make the same choice."

Olivia smiled gently and squeezed his hand in thanks. She'd needed to hear that.

"I won't."

"Good. Now get some rest. You've been through a lot."

"I will. Thank you, Captain."

He gave her a nod, patted her hand, and stood.

"You'll let the others know I'm okay?"

"Of course. I'll even try to hold them off from invading your room for awhile."

Olivia chuckled lightly and closed her eyes to try and get some rest. Chris had made a choice, and so had she. Too many people out there needed her to let one event stop her from reaching out to help them. Being a detective was who she was, and she wouldn't let anything change that.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Well, there you go. That's the end! Hope everyone liked it. While I am working away on my next fic, a crossover with SVU and CM, it's taking me awhile. Inspiration is a little low even though I've really wanted to write this one. Chances are I'll be taking a little break after it to maybe increase my motivation to work on the others I have planned for later.<p> 


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